03-14-2013, 11:17 PM
I checked my books of Marcus Junkelmann, Eric Teyssier and Dario Battaglia in order to answer your questions as good as possible:
Teyssier mentions an inscription from Vesona in Apulia, Italia (CIL 09, 00466) where the scissor is listed among ten gladiator types. Unfortunately he does not state the date of this inscription (unfortunately my search for it online was in vain). But at least this is from Italia.
Also Teyssier only shows a photo of a fragment of a relief from Bucuresti where the strange knife is shown.
Teyssier as well as Junkelmann mention reliefs from the Eastern part of the Roman Empire: A relief from Tomis (Robert no. 46) shows a gladiator fighting against a retiarius, having a secutor helment and a gladius, wearing a lorica squamata and the strange knife thingy lies on the floor.
The second one is of unknownd provenance, nowadays at the Louvre showing a gladiator named Myron dating 2nd-3rd century. It shows him in fighting stance, but no opponent.
In his new edition of his book Junkelmann adds that in the Eastern part this gladiator type was called arbelas and shows a relief where two scissores/arbelai fight against each other. It is from Hierapolis (Pammukkale, Turkey) and dates from 3rd-4th century.
Battaglia also depicts as a drawing only an oillamp from Cnidos dating from 3rd century showing a retiarius against a scissor.
When the scissor fights as a contrarete he is clearly shown with some kind of a lorica, either hamata or squamata whereas his body protection cannot be clearly identified on the reliefs where he fights against another scissor.
General timeframe would be 2nd-4th centuries and more popular in the East than in the West. Why this was is up to speculation
Also I think it is speculative if they were some kind of an elite secutor. Like the dimachaerus they could fight either against each other or against the retiarius.
Teyssier mentions an inscription from Vesona in Apulia, Italia (CIL 09, 00466) where the scissor is listed among ten gladiator types. Unfortunately he does not state the date of this inscription (unfortunately my search for it online was in vain). But at least this is from Italia.
Also Teyssier only shows a photo of a fragment of a relief from Bucuresti where the strange knife is shown.
Teyssier as well as Junkelmann mention reliefs from the Eastern part of the Roman Empire: A relief from Tomis (Robert no. 46) shows a gladiator fighting against a retiarius, having a secutor helment and a gladius, wearing a lorica squamata and the strange knife thingy lies on the floor.
The second one is of unknownd provenance, nowadays at the Louvre showing a gladiator named Myron dating 2nd-3rd century. It shows him in fighting stance, but no opponent.
In his new edition of his book Junkelmann adds that in the Eastern part this gladiator type was called arbelas and shows a relief where two scissores/arbelai fight against each other. It is from Hierapolis (Pammukkale, Turkey) and dates from 3rd-4th century.
Battaglia also depicts as a drawing only an oillamp from Cnidos dating from 3rd century showing a retiarius against a scissor.
When the scissor fights as a contrarete he is clearly shown with some kind of a lorica, either hamata or squamata whereas his body protection cannot be clearly identified on the reliefs where he fights against another scissor.
General timeframe would be 2nd-4th centuries and more popular in the East than in the West. Why this was is up to speculation
Also I think it is speculative if they were some kind of an elite secutor. Like the dimachaerus they could fight either against each other or against the retiarius.
