06-21-2011, 02:59 AM
Does anyone know if it is already documented anywhere on this website that the scissors gladiator is actually a gladiator who had his hand amputated by a doctor because of an infection to his injured hand (a cut sustained in a past fight) ... I figure that this type gladiator was still young and was a career gladiator in one of the private schools who felt he was just too young to retire from the sport ... the scissors blade and metal arm-cuff would have been the perfect weapon for someone with an amputated hand. Medical technology at that time did not invent the anti-biotic to keep people healthy, thus, one can imagine that there were plenty of fighters who sustained cut-fingers and slashed-hands and neglected to keep their hands & fingers always properly cleaned which consequently led to hands getting staph infections that ran from the fingertips (where the cut occured) to up the hand, and then up the arm and through the shoulder and finally to the heart where it would have been fatal. Roman doctors at that time must have noticed that over the years and knew that once the staph infection was noticed in the hand (a red streak), that amputation of the hand was the only thing that could save the infected person from death.
Michael
