Numerus/numeroi
A numerus literally means ‘number’ and originally referred to units of the Imperial Roman army who came from barbarian allies, were not integrated into the regular army structure of legions and auxilia. Such units were of undetermined strength and their organisation and equipment probably varied according to the unit’s ethnic origin. The term was also applied to semi-permanent detachments of regular army units.
Munus (plural munera)
Meaning ‘the show’, the term also has a connotation of ‘duty’. It usually lasted for three or more days and, under special circumstances, for weeks or months. Provincial games rarely lasted more than two days, but Titus’s games in Rome for the inauguration of the completed Flavian in AD 80 lasted 100 days. The classic Italian munus plena included venations in the morning, various noontime activities (meridiani), and gladiatorial duels in the afternoon.
Omnes ad Stercus
A gladiatorial term, liberally scrawled on walls all over Rome. Best translation is ‘it’s all shit’, but ‘we’re in the shit’ can also be used, depending on context. It is not, as internet translations coyly have it, ‘get lost’ or ‘go to hell’. In the context here, it is used as a password challenge, the response being Sodales, avete, which roughly translates as ‘welcome to the club’.
Six
The number tagged against a gladiator’s name in the school he was part of when he died. Origin unknown – but to be ‘sixed’ means you are a dead man.
Spoliarium
The room that lay behind the Gate of Death, where all fallen fighters and beasts were dragged by men dressed as servitors of Dis Pater using a hook and chains. It was a charnel house where slaves stripped off armour and weapons for reuse, then stacked the human bodies for a while until they were claimed for burial. If unclaimed, they were tipped down the Hole.
Sweating Post
The colloquial name for the Meta Sudans, a large fountain near the Colosseum, constructed about the same time and designed to look like one of the meta, the conical markers at either end of the Circus Maximus around which chariots would turn. The fountain echoed that function because it acted as a turning point for triumphal processions, which would turn left there, leaving the Via Triumphalis for the Via Sacra and on to the Forum Romanum. The water in the fountain was designed not to jet out but to flow down the cone, which seems to have given it the name Sweating Post. However, that is also the name for the conical training aid where generations of gladiators sweated with heavy wooden practice swords.
Urban Cohorts and Vigiles
The Urban Cohorts (cohortes urbanae) were created by Augustus to offset the power of the Praetorians in Rome. Near the end of his reign (27 BCE - 14 CE), Augustus created the first three urban cohorts, likely recruiting them from the existing Praetorian Guard which was also stationed in Rome. The precise date of their foundation is not known, but the first reference is from Suetonius, detailing how each member received 500 sesterces in Augustus Will. They acted as a police force in Rome and other cities of the Empire.
The Vigiles (cohortes vigilum) were also formed during the reign of Augustus to act as the city’s permanent firefighting service. It was not the first time such a force had been created for the likes of Marcus Licinius Crassus, one of Rome’s all-time richest men, had spotted the chance of making money by offering low prices for burning buildings and then having his team of slaves extinguish the fire so that it could be saved for redevelopment. If the property owner refused the offer, then the fire was left to rage on unabated.
The Vigiles were contemptuously dismissed by the better-paid, better-trained and better-armed Urban Cohort s as ‘little bucket men’ because their equipment included the wherewithal to fight fires – leather buckets and axes. The Vigiles had the power to enter any home or business and make sure the owner had obeyed fire regulations.
Wine
Rome’s drink of choice and as varied as the people who drank it. Some were named according to vintage and others according to how they were made and the ingredients used. Lots of historical writers throw Roman wine terminology around like drunks, without actually knowing much about it. So I share my considerable, in-depth and painfully earned research…
Falernum
The most famous Roman wine was a fulvus white. It was best drunk aged, although it was reputed to last no longer than twenty years in the amphora. It is the one most abused by writers who have it drunk by legionaries in local bars, and if it is spilled is almost always red. Falernum was the Château d’Yquem of its day and unlikely to be affordable to anyone like a legionary.
Calenum
Similar to Falernum, this had a lighter taste and was apparently the favourite of the patrician class.
Albanum
There were two types: dry and sweet. It was regarded as a quality wine that needed fifteen years to mature.
Massilitanum
A smoky, cheap wine that was reputedly healthy but not very tasty. An absolute acquired taste. A decent analogy would be whisky drinkers trying Laphroaig for the first time.
Momentanum
Needed at least five years to be drinkable and even then it was unremarkable, according to Martial.
Mulsum
The apéritif of choice. Mulsum was wine combined with honey, either during or after fermentation. Columella recommended the addition of the honey during brewing, although Pliny the Elder felt it should be added to a dry wine before serving.
Passum
Raisin wine. Made from half-dried grapes left on the vine, passum was a sweet drink.
Conditum
Wine mixed with pepper, honey and seawater, this was a beverage adopted from the Greeks, who got it from further east. Cato recommended the use of Apician grapes.
Lora
Sneered at as the wine of slaves, lora was made from the leftovers of wine production. Grape pulp would be mixed with water and pressed a second or third time.
Posca
Not strictly a wine, this was a vinegar-based drink, popular with travellers. The vinegar was carried in a flask and added to water, making a reputedly refreshing beverage. The custom arose because of vinegar’s disinfecting properties, as a way of making unreliable water drinkable. To improve flavour spices and honey were often added. It was the drink of soldiers on the march – and given to a dying Christ on the cross by one, so not exactly the cruel taunt portrayed in the Bible.
The Gladiators
Hoplomachus
This gladiator was distinguished by his short, curved sword. Like a Thrax, he wore high leg guards.
Murmillo
A fighter apparently named after a Greek word for fish. He wore a crested helmet and carried a tall shield.
Retiarius
This was the most distinctive-looking gladiator, a bare-headed, unshielded fighter whose main protection was padding and a shoulder guard on his left arm. He used a net to ensnare his opponent and a long trident to impale him.
Rudiarius
A gladiator who had received a rudis – the wooden sword that marked him as retired and no longer a slave – was an experienced volunteer, especially worth watching. There was a hierarchy of experienced rudiarii within a familia of gladiators, and rudiarii could become trainers, helpers, and arbiters of fights, the referees. The most elite of the retired gladiators were dubbed summa rudis. The summa rudis officials served as technical experts to ensure that the gladiators fought bravely, skilfully, and according to the rules. They carried batons and whips with which they pointed out illegal movements. Ultimately the summa rudis officials could stop a fight if a gladiator was going to be too seriously wounded, compel gladiators to fight on, or defer the decision to the organiser. Retired gladiators who became summa rudis often achieved fame and wealth in their second careers as officials of the combats.
Secutor
Translates as ‘follower’, this was the man usually sent in to fight a retiarius. His armour was distinguished by a helmet with small eyeholes that would presumably impede the
trident’s prongs.
Thrax
The Thracian was another type of fighter equipped like a former enemy soldier (from Thrace in northern Greece). He fought with a small rectangular shield and his helmet bore a griffin crest.
The Gear
Fascia
A band of cloth or leather that protected the leg below the knee and provided padding beneath a greave.
Fascina (or tridens)
The long, three-pronged metal trident that was the hallmark of a retiarius.
Galea
The helmet worn by all gladiators except the retiarius. These were domed and often featured decorative crests and visors pierced with eyeholes.
Galerus
The distinctive metal shoulder guard of a retiarius. It curved up strongly from the shoulder, away from the neck, so that neck and head were protected but the fighter’s head movements were not restricted.
Gladius
The straight stabbing sword that gave its name to the gladiator. For many years it was also the potent weapon of the legionary, until changes in fighting style brought about a longer pointed sword with more reach, the spatha. The gladius was relegated to light infantry and the cavalry also adopted the spatha, though with a blunt point so they wouldn’t accidentally stab themselves in the foot. All of these were also used by gladiators.
Ocrea
A metal leg guard that ran from the knee (or above) to the shin and protected mainly the front of the leg.
Parma
A round or square shield that was smaller and lighter than a scutum.
Pugio
A dagger, weapon of last resort of a retiarius.
Rudis
The wooden sword or staff symbolising a gladiator’s liberatio.
Scutum
A large rectangular shield (curving inward so that it formed part of a cylinder), carried by a murmillo.
Subligaculum
A traditional loincloth worn by gladiators (the chest was almost always bare).
Brothers Of The Sands
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First published in the United Kingdom in 2020 by Canelo
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Copyright © Robert Low, 2020
The moral right of Robert Low to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 9781788636995
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places and events are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
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