cestus
Illustration — Gallo-Roman mosaic (ca. 175 AD) showing a boxing scene from Virgil's Aeneid, book 5: cesti are worn by the aging Sicilian victor Entellus, who sacrifices his prize bull by landing a great blow to its head, and by the young Trojan Dares, his head spurting blood A cestus or caestus is a fighting glove that was sometimes used in Roman gladiatorial events. It was based on a Greek original, which employed straps called himantes and sphirae, hard leather strips that enclosed and protected the fist and lower arm.
Also recorded as caestus · cæſtus
cestus
J. Paul Getty Museum · The Getty Center, Object 103SQM This image was taken from the Getty Research Institute 's Open Content Program, which states the following regarding their assessment that no known copyright restricti · CC0
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- clothing in ancient Greece, clothing in ancient Rome and combat glove.
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Illustration — Gallo-Roman mosaic (ca. 175 AD) showing a boxing scene from Virgil's Aeneid, book 5: cesti are worn by the aging Sicilian victor Entellus, who sacrifices his prize bull by landing a great blow to its head, and by the young Trojan Dares, his head spurting blood A cestus or caestus is a fighting glove that was sometimes used in Roman gladiatorial events. It was based on a Greek original, which employed straps called himantes and sphirae, hard leather strips that enclosed and protected the fist and lower arm.
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gnd · 4756423-4 · wikidata · Q1057669
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Terminology
Terminology
Some cesti were fitted with studs or spikes to inflict potentially lethal injuries. Cestus fighters seem to have had no form of body armour, apart from the cestus itself. Contemporary depictions show the cestus worn in pairs.
Latin Caestus or cestus translates as "striker". Its plural is caestus. More rarely, plural cesti is used; this translates as "thongs". English language plural "cestuses" is also used.
Greece and Rome
Greece and Rome
In Greece, cestus-fights were featured in the Olympic games. Theagenes of Thasos, cestus champion in the Olympics of 480 BC, is said to have killed "most of his opponents"; he was also victor of the Olympic pankration and many other athletic events, and was given hero cult after his death. At some time in the development of Rome's gladiator games, cestus fighting was introduced as an arena spectacle. • Illustration — Drawing of a cestus The basic Roman cestus was made of hard leather straps, which enclosed and protected the fighter's lower arm and fist. The straps could be studded, or, more extremely, spiked. Caestūs were usually worn in pairs. In Roman gladiator contests, cestus-fighters were probably matched against others of their kind; the cestus was effective protection and weaponry against other cestus fighters, and possibly against armoured gladiators equipped with other weapons. Apart from the cestus itself, the cestus-fighter would probably have had no body armour. Like all arena personnel (arenarii), cestus fighters were either slaves or infames, "infamous ones" who held a very low level of citizenship, their status and privileges severely restricted because of their professional association with blood-pollution and death.
Primary material
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authority file
- Gemeinsame Normdatei 4756423-4, Cestus sapphicus.
Unverified · Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
reference work
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q1057669: cestus
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Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Charlton Lewis and Charles Short. A Latin Dictionary. Oxford University Press. 1966.
- 2.Latin Word Study Tool. tufts.edu.
- 3.Stefano De Caro The National Archaeological Museum of Naples 1996 "119971 This statue, found in 1899 among the remains of a gymnasium, represents a boxer (note the cesti or thongs armed with metal studs, on his hands)."
- 4.Kyle, Donald G. Sport and Spectacle in the Ancient World, Oxford, Blackwell Publishing, 2007, p. 201. https://books.google.com/books?id=tEbcu-sDkFEC
- 5.Green, Thomas, Martial Arts of the World: R-Z, https://books.google.com/books?id=v32oHSE5t6cC&dq=cestus+gladiator&pg=PA147 Greenwood Publishing Group, 2001, pp 45, 149,
- 6.Caestus. 944.
- 7.Green, Thomas A. Martial Arts of the World: R-Z. Bloomsbury Academic. 2001. 9781576071502.
- 8.John Travis, Hilary Travis, Roman Helmets, google.com/books, 15 December 2014, p. 141 https://books.google.com/books?id=jVBpCAAAQBAJ&dq=cestus+gladiator&pg=PA141-IA6
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authority file
Gemeinsame Normdatei 4756423-4, Cestus sapphicus.Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
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