Retiarius
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A retiarius was a Roman gladiator who fought with equipment styled on that of a fisherman: a weighted net, a three-pointed trident, and a dagger. The retiarius was lightly armoured, wearing an arm gua
A retiarius stabs at a secutor with his trident in this mosaic from the villa at Nennig, c. 2nd–3rd century CE.
Relief showing a fight between a secutor and retiarius
A murmillo stands victorious over a retiarius in Pollice Verso, a painting by Jean-Léon Gérôme (1872).
In this scene from the Zliten mosaic (c. CE 200), a retiarius armed only with a dagger raises a finger in surrender. His trident lies at the foot of his secutor adversary, and his net is missing. He is also seen bleeding from an artery in his leg
Pollice Verso (Gérôme)
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Pollice Verso is an 1872 painting by French artist Jean-Léon Gérôme, featuring the eponymous Roman gesture directed to the winning gladiator.
Retiarius
…which the Secutor had to submit to, in being forced to fight with Gracchus, was worse than any wound. A murmillo stands victorious over a retiarius in Pollice Verso, a painting by Jean-Léon Gérôme (1872). The passage is obscure, but Cerutti and Richardson argue that Gracchus begins the fight as a loincloth-wearing…
Detail: the Vestal virgins signal death for the defeated gladiator.
Title page with illustration from "Pollice Verso": To the Lovers of Truth in Classic Art, This is Most Respectfully Addressed, 1879.
Detail: close-up of the gladiators