Ancient Roman Gladiator Names: There were many types of gladiators in ancient Rome. They could be prisoners of war or sometimes just fought with native armor. A gladiator war, however, unlike a normal war was fought under strict rules and the fighters were always barefooted.

Here is a brief list of a few names of the many types of gladiators that they used to have. Most of them perform very different functions from the other!

1)Andabata – Ancient Roman Gladiator Names

The Tanabata fought blindly; he wore a helmet that deprived him of vision.

2)Bestiarius – Ancient Roman Gladiator Names

The Bestiarius was a beast-fighter.

3)Bustuarius

The Bustuarius was literally a “tomb fighter,” from Bustum, “tomb”. The term points toward the association of gladiatorial combat with funeral games

4)Cestus

Ancient Roman name of gladiator Cestus was a fist-fighter or boxer who wore the cestus, a brutal forerunner of the boxing glove.

5)Dimachaerus

The Dimachaerus (“bearing two knives”) used two swords, one in each hand.

6)Equates

Equates also was known as equities, was the regular Latin word for a horseman or cavalryman. They would begin on horseback, but after they had thrown their lance, they dismounted and continued to fight on foot with their short sword. Generally, equities only fought other equities.

7)Essedarius

The Essedarius fought on the war-chariot, Essedum

8)Paegniarius

The Paegniarius don’t combat with lethal weapons but were entertainers who performed mock duels during breaks. They had neither helmets nor shields but wore protective wrappings on lower legs and head. Hence they usually lived long: an epitaph for a Paegniarius named Secundus boasted that he had lived 99 years, 8 months, and 18 days.

9)Sagittarius The Sagittarius was a mounted archer very much like the depiction of the zodiac sign, armed with a reflex bow capable of propelling an arrow a great distance

10)Scissor – Name of Ancient Roman Gladiator

The scissor (plural scissors) used a special short sword with two blades that looked like a pair of open scissors without a hinge. It is speculated that they attempted to trap their opponents’ weapons between the twin blades in order to disarm them.

11)Tertiarius – Name of Ancient Roman Gladiator

In some games, three men were matched against each other. The first two would fight, with the winner then fighting the third man, called the tertiaries (“third man”). Tertiary were also substitutes if a gladiator was unable to fight.

12)Venator – Name of Gladiator in Ancient Rome

The Venator “(“hunter”) specialized in wild animal hunts instead of fighting them as the bestiary did. They were not really gladiators in the strict sense of the term but can be considered so.