The thraex wore the usual loincloth and belt, and protected the right arm with a manica. Because the shield (parmula) was smaller than the scutum of the murmillo, his traditional adversary, longer greaves were required to protect the legs and thighs, which also were wrapped with thick quilted fabric. The weapon was a short sword (sica) with an angled blade. The helmet, too, was distinctive. The torso of the gladiator usually was bare, a demonstration of the gladiator's willingness to die and a means, juxtaposed with those parts of the body that were unprotected, to bring it about.
In this detail from a larger mosaic, the thraex attacks with the sword in his left hand, which usually would hold the shield. Gladiators were trained to fight against those who were right-handed, and it was the right-hand side that was protected. It must have been disconcerting, therefore, to confront a left-handed opponent, who would have the advantage. Indeed, in one graffito, a gladiator is specifically described as being left handed, sc(aeva). Commodus, who fought as a secutor, also boasted of being left handed (Dio, Roman History, LXXIII.22).
To the Romans, Thrace (on the southwestern shore of the Black Sea) was a distant and remote country, through which the icy Hebrus flowed and the entrails of dogs were offered to Artemis (Horace, Odes, I.12; Ovid, Fasti, I.389). Its women were thought to be Bacchantes, adherents of Dionysus, himself a Thracian deity, engaged in orgies, their hair bound with vipers (Odes, II.7, II.19). Such women had killed Orpheus, son of a Thracian king, whose lyre had held back the wind and rivers of that country (Odes, I.12). Horace also speaks of furiosa Thrace (Odes, II.16), "mad Thrace," its drunken men using their wine cups, meant for pleasure, for fighting instead (Odes, I.27) and of a spendthrift, left with no other means of support, becoming a gladiator, "Thraex erit" (Epistles, I.18). One of the more curious references to the Thracians is the "Interpretation of Dreams" by Artemidorus.
"I have often observed that this dream [fighting as a gladiator] indicates that a man will marry a woman whose character corresponds to the type of weapons that he dreams he is using or to the type of opponent against whom he is fighting....For example, if a man fights with a Thracian, he will marry a wife who is rich, crafty, and fond of being first. She will be rich because the Thracian's body is entirely covered by his armor; crafty, because his sword is not straight; and fond of being first, because this fighter employs the advancing technique" (Oneirocritica, II.32).
Reference: Das Spiel mit dem Tod: So Kämpften Roms Gladiatoren (2000) by Marcus Junkelmann. The mosaic is in the Römerhalle at Bad Kreuznach (Germany).
See also Amazones.
