A knife handle featuring a gladiator will go on display at Hadrian’s Wall in England after being discovered by two divers.
The handle, which is about 2,000 years old, was discovered in the River Tyne near Corbridge in Northumberland, and is thought to have been bought as a souvenir.
English Heritage said: “It provides new proof that gladiators’ celebrity status extended to the very edge of the Roman empire.”
The figure of the secutor, a gladiator class, features a helmet and shield and is made of copper alloy.
It is possibly based on a real-life fighter, as he is shown to be left-handed, which historians believe would have been considered unlucky at the time.
Dr Frances McIntosh, English Heritage’s collections curator for Hadrian’s Wall and the North East, told the PA news agency the knife was discovered in the 1990s near the Corbridge Roman site by two divers, and has never been put on display before.
She said the knife handle “was really quite spectacular” and could be an example of “fan memorabilia”.
Dr McIntosh added: “It’s not just a generic person so that’s really exciting as well, to have a specific person potentially represented, which means that the person who owns that knife has made that really purposeful decision to commission and get that knife handle made of a gladiator they are a fan of.”
She also said that it is “not just the Colosseum in Rome”, depicted in the film Gladiator and its sequel Gladiator II, released on Friday in the UK, that held fights in front of spectators, and there were examples of at “least 12 amphitheatres where gladiatorial combat was held in Britain”.
Dr McIntosh said: “Anything that kind of puts the past in the public eye and makes them think that it could be really exciting, could only be good for heritage sites.
“And for sort of understanding the past, because if it gets people excited, even if it’s not historically accurate, then it means that they might come and visit a museum or have a look on English Heritage web page to find out some information, or go to their local museum to find out about the facts.”
Aside from those sites already found, she said, there could have been travelling gladiator teams putting on bouts throughout the country, including at Hadrian’s Wall, which was built to defend against the Picts of Scotland.
English Heritage will display the knife at Corbridge Roman Town in 2025, alongside other finds from the River Tyne.
Gladiator II, the hotly anticipated second film in the series, directed by Sir Ridley Scott, stars Paul Mescal, Denzel Washington, Connie Nielsen and Pedro Pascal.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel