Šimon Kraj?o
Unregistered
Hello,
I should perform Scissor the gladiator, but I can´t find any suitable pictures which would help me to imagine how he looked like. If you have any reliable images please post them here, I would be very grateful.
Thank you, sorry for my English :-(
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This could help get you started.
http://legvi.tripod.com/gladiators/id6.html
http://www.realarmorofgod.com/gladiators.html
There are members of several gladiator schools on RAT, a few of which have scissor impressions in their membership.
M. Demetrius Abicio
(David Wills)
Saepe veritas est dura.
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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
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While it is conceivable that the very first scissor (some prefer the term arbelas for this type of gladiator)was a gladiator who had lost a hand and had it replaced with a prosthesis (think Captain Hook)it is very unlikely that it was a regular practice. for one thing, the crescent-and-gauntlet device is always depicted on the left arm. Nineteen out of twenty gladiators had their left arms and hands protected by the shield and was about the only part of the body that was relatively safe.
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The gauntlet with the scissor knife is a part which the gladiator put his hand into, because on a relief from Hierapolis (Pamukkale, Turkey) showing two pictures of the same fight between two scissores one of the loses the gauntlet during the fight. On a stele the gauntlet as well as other armor are shown.
Therefore I assume, that this is a removable item of the armor like a sword or shield.
The items I refered to are shown in the new edition of the Junkelmann on page 210.
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roberts, I just noticed something in Junklemann's book that proves my speculation to be wrong > he shows a picture of a stone-relief of an arbelas fighter who's vambrance is laying on the ground while he's standing & grasping the trident of a retarius. Oh well, at least my speculation was a bit of food for thought. Thankyou anyway for responding to my speculation.
Michael
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Medusa, the double stone-relief that you mention is obscure because it shows that an arbelas is wearing a vambrance in the upper part of the relief but then the lower part of the relief does not define the arm & hand of this same arbelas while he's not wearing his vambrance... which makes it still unclear if the arbelas is or is not an amputee. However, my speculation that amputees played the arbelas role is proven wrong because of a picture that i just saw now in junklemann's book. He shows a stone-relief of an arbelas grasping the trident of a retarius while his vambrance is laying on the ground. //////////// Also, (gently-says)i already know that the vambrance is a removable part of equipment but this still would not have proven that an amputee couldn't wear this because Nossov's book "Gladiator" illustrates the arbelas having the vambrance strapped towards his shoulder which would have held it in place. But again, i am now convinced that the arbelas was not an amputee. Thankyou Medusa anyway for responding to my speculation (smiles).
Michael
