The dimachaeri (singular: dimachaerus) were a type of Roman
gladiator
A gladiator ( la, gladiator, "swordsman", from , "sword") was an armed combatant who entertained audiences in the Roman Republic and Roman Empire in violent confrontations with other gladiators, wild animals, and condemned criminals. Some gla ...
that fought with two
sword
A sword is an edged, bladed weapon intended for manual cutting or thrusting. Its blade, longer than a knife or dagger, is attached to a hilt and can be straight or curved. A thrusting sword tends to have a straighter blade with a pointed ti ...
s. The name is the Latin-language borrowing of the Greek word meaning "bearing two knives" (
di- ''dual'' +
machairi ''knife'').
The dimachaeri were popular during the 2nd-4th centuries AD, and were probably considered to be "insidious" by many Romans.
Both written and pictorial records on dimachaeri are scant and rather indeterminate. Thus, an inscription from Lyon, France, mentions such a type of gladiator, here spelled ''dymacherus''.
Equipment
Depictions of Himachali and their equipment vary in pictorial sources, so it is difficult to say exactly how, and how uniformly, they were equipped. Some pictorial sources depict wearing extremely minimal such as a
balteus and leather wrappings or none at all, save a ''subligaculum'' (loin cloth). Other show a slightly more heavily armored dimachaerus, variously equipped with
scale armor
Scale armour (or scale mail) is an early form of armour consisting of many individual small armour scales (plates) of various shapes attached to each other and to a backing of cloth or leather in overlapping rows.[mail
The mail or post is a system for physically transporting postcards, letter (message), letters, and parcel (package), parcels. A postal service can be private or public, though many governments place restrictions on private systems. Since the mid ...]
shirts,
visored helmets in the fashion of
murmillo
The murmillo (also sometimes spelled "mirmillo" or "myrmillo", pl. murmillones) was a type of gladiator during the Roman Imperial age. The murmillo-class gladiator was adopted in the early Imperial period to replace the earlier Gallus, named afte ...
s,
greave
A greave (from the Old French ''greve'' "shin, shin armour") or jambeau is a piece of armour that protects the leg.
Description
The primary purpose of greaves is to protect the tibia from attack. The tibia, or shinbone, is very close to the skin ...
s and leg wrappings, both barefoot and in sandals. It is a mistake to suppose that dimachaeri were always identically equipped, or even similarly equipped, apart from wielding two blades. It is also entirely possible that the dimachaerus was not a separate class of gladiator at all, but a sub-discipline within a class, or even a cross-discipline practiced by multiple classes. In the late Roman Empire, when references to dimachaeri first appear, many novelties and new gladiator types were being introduced to the arena, and sub-classes had appeared within many gladiator types.
Fighting style
The dimachaeri were equipped for close-combat fighting.
A dimachaerus used a pair of
sica
The sica was a short sword or large dagger of ancient Illyrians, Thracians and Dacians, used in Ancient Rome too, originating in the Halstatt culture. It was originally depicted as a curved sword (see the Zliten mosaic as well as numerous oil la ...
(curved scimitar) or
gladius
''Gladius'' () is a Latin word meaning "sword" (of any type), but in its narrow sense it refers to the sword of ancient Roman foot soldiers. Early ancient Roman swords were similar to those of the Greeks, called '' xiphe'' (plural; singular ''xi ...
and used a fighting style adapted to both attack and defend with his weapons rather than a shield, as he or she was not equipped with one.
[Marcus Junkelmann, 'Familia Gladiatoria: "The Heroes of the Amphitheatre"' in The Power of Spectacle in Ancient Rome: Gladiators and Caesars, ed. by Eckart Köhne and Cornelia Ewigleben (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 2000), p. 63. ] Little else is known about this class of gladiator, but due to the difficulty of wielding two swords it can be inferred that dimachaeri were ambidextrous or highly skilled and experienced fighters, and were probably relatively exalted as a class of gladiator.
Dimachaeri would have been ideally suited to fight heavily armored opponents and they may have fought other dimachaeri, as well.
They are also referred to as fighting against a gladiator class called
hoplomachus
A hoplomachus (pl. hoplomachi) ( hoplon meaning "equipment" in Greek) was a type of gladiator in ancient Rome, armed to resemble a Greek hoplite (soldier with heavy armor and helmet, a small, round, concave shield, a spear and a sword). The hop ...
, which, according to
Justus Lipsius
Justus Lipsius (Joest Lips or Joost Lips; 18 October 1547 – 23 March 1606) was a Flemish Catholic philologist, philosopher, and humanist. Lipsius wrote a series of works designed to revive ancient Stoicism in a form that would be compatible w ...
, was a putative variant of the
Samnite.
[Roman life and manners under the early empire 'Ludwig Friedlaender' (1913)pp 176-2]
See also
*
List of Roman gladiator types
There were many different types of gladiators in ancient Rome. Some of the first gladiators had been prisoners-of-war, and so some of the earliest types of gladiators were experienced fighters; Gauls, Samnites, and ''Thraeces'' (Thracians) used t ...
References
{{reflist
Gladiatorial combat
Gladiator types