Day 5: Gladiator School

Today we went to Gladiator School.  Here we see the boys about to receive their orders from Alex, who oversaw their training.

After distributing the equipment among the boys,

Alex had them march to the training ground.

After lining them up,

Alex demonstrated the proper way to hold the Roman sword.  The Romans used a short sword called the gladius hispanensis, but the boys started off with a wooden trainer called a rudus.

Alex taught them the correct stance and ready position,

and how to move forward and backward.

He had them proceed through multiple drills, against a succession of targets.

He also had them practice punching and kicking techniques.

When Alex deemed them ready, the group graduated to metal swords and were given shields.  Again they worked against targets.

After that it was time for a brief period of training with the Roman spear, the pilum, and then they were given bows and arrows.

The culmination of the day was when Christian Cantello was chosen to serve as a retinarius, a type of gladiator who fought with a trident and a net.  Here we see Alex helping gird Christian for battle, ably assisted by Austin "Giant" Bednarz.

The boys await their turn to duel with the retinarius.

The retinarius attempted to capture the boys in his net.  His throws were accurate,

But most of the boys managed to escape his clutches.

After gladiator school came to an end, we drove back into the city, passing the Tomb of Gaius Cestius,

and the Porta San Paolo, the gate to Rome on the Ostian Way

We then arrived at the Circus Maximus, the famous chariot racing track in Rome.

Mr. Cantello and our most excellent tour director Richard Bowen took this opportunity to teach the boys a bit about the game of rugby, since we will be going to see Italy play France on Saturday.  Here they line the lads up in a scrum.

After a few practice scrums, we broke for a few hours.  Tonight we headed to Trastevere, the 'hip' section of Rome, for dinner.