Practice Swords

[Yehya]

Based on my limited understanding actual weapons were not used at the gladiator schools, perhaps for security reasons, and various forms of practice weapons were used? Is there any documentation on this? How were they constructed?

[Medusa Gladiatrix]

of course gladiators fought in the arena with sharp weapons; at least at the big events. if they did so too in the provinces at small events is still under discussion.

its of course reasonably to train with blunt or wooden weapons otherwise the casualties esp. among the tirones would e too high. in a military context they have found such wooden practise swords. the historian vegetius mentions also the use of wicker shields for training purposes.