Boxing scene from Virgil's Aeneid, book 5, when the aging Sicilian champion Entellus defeats the young Trojan, Dares. Blood spurts from Dares' injured head. Each wears a pair of cesti. After his victory, Entellus sacrifices his prize, a bull, by landing a great blow to its head. (Mosaic floor from a Gallo-Roman villa in Villelaure, France, ca. 175 AD)

A cestus or caestus (Classical Latin: [ˈkae̯stʊs], Ancient Greek: Kεστός) is a battle 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. Some cestuses 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.

Terminology

Drawing of a cestus

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.[1][2][3]

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.[4] At some time in the development of Rome's gladiator games, cestus fighting was introduced as an arena spectacle.[5]

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. [6] 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.[7] Apart from the cestus itself, the cestus-fighter would probably have had no body armour.[8]

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. Most would have had a very limited life-expectancy. As a potentially lethal, pagan blood sport, Cestus boxing is usually assumed to have been included in the banning of punitive gladiator contests under legislation of the emperor Constantine I, in 325.[9][10][11] The reasons for these bans are disputed. Their effectiveness is questionable, as similar legislation was enacted by later Roman emperors.

See also

References

  1. ^ Charlton Lewis and Charles Short (1966). A Latin Dictionary. Oxford University Press.
  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. isbn 978-0-631-22970-4 [1]
  5. ^ Green, Thomas, Martial Arts of the World: R-Z, [2] Greenwood Publishing Group, 2001, pp 45, 149, ISBN 9781576071502
  6. ^  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Caestus". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 4 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 944.
  7. ^ Green, Thomas A. (2001). Martial Arts of the World: R-Z. Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN 9781576071502 – via google.ca.
  8. ^ John Travis, Hilary Travis, Roman Helmets, google.com/books, 15 December 2014, p. 141 [3] ISBN 9781445638478
  9. ^ David Potter, "Constantine and the Gladiators", The Classical Quarterly, Vol. 60, No. 2 (December 2010), p. 602
  10. ^ See Codex Theodosianus, 2.8.19 and 2.8.22
  11. ^ Pharr, Clyde; Davidson, Theresa Sherrer; Pharr, Mary Brown (2001) [1952]. The Theodosian Code and Novels, and the Sirmondian Constitutions. The Lawbook Exchange. ISBN 978-1-58477-146-3.
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