The rare discovery was made in the River Tyne at English Heritage’s Corbridge Roman Town site. Made from copper alloy, the knife handle is cast in the shape of a gladiator holding a shield.<\/p> The figurine is left-handed, which would have been considered unlucky at the time. English Heritage have therefore suggested that it could be a representation of a specific gladiator, similar to the memorabilia of sports stars that we see today.<\/p> The knife handle depicts a secutor gladiator, identified by its large rectangular shield and helmet. Secutor gladiators were specifically trained to fight retiarius gladiators (who were armed with a trident, weighted net and a dagger) in a display designed to dramatise an encounter between the ‘fish’ (secutor) and ‘fisherman’ (retiarius).<\/p> Dr Frances McIntosh, English Heritage’s Collections Curator for Hadrian’s Wall and the North East, says, ‘Despite being enslaved and socially outcast due to their profession, gladiators could become huge celebrities.’<\/p> ‘Gladiators had sex appeal and there are cases of high-status Roman women falling ‘in love’ with these lowly fighters, despite the vast social difference. This beautifully made knife handle is a testament to how pervasive this celebrity culture was, reaching all the way to Hadrian’s Wall at the very edge of the Roman Empire.’<\/p> ‘Even now, almost 2,000 years later, the fascination around gladiators persists and has expanded even further into modern popular culture.’<\/p> English Heritage plan to display the 2,000 year-old knife handle at Corbridge Roman Town<\/a> in 2025, along with other finds from the River Tyne.<\/p> Retrace Roman footsteps with these walks:<\/strong><\/p> A rare Roman discovery at Hadrian’s Wall has furthered speculation of gladiator’s celebrity status <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":42124,"template":"","categories":[1,27],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"3"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/45\/2024\/11\/rare-roman-knife-handle-discovered-at-hadrians-wall-proves-celebrity-cult-of-gladiators-say-experts.jpg",2560,1653,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/45\/2024\/11\/rare-roman-knife-handle-discovered-at-hadrians-wall-proves-celebrity-cult-of-gladiators-say-experts-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/45\/2024\/11\/rare-roman-knife-handle-discovered-at-hadrians-wall-proves-celebrity-cult-of-gladiators-say-experts-300x194.jpg",300,194,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/45\/2024\/11\/rare-roman-knife-handle-discovered-at-hadrians-wall-proves-celebrity-cult-of-gladiators-say-experts-768x496.jpg",768,496,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/45\/2024\/11\/rare-roman-knife-handle-discovered-at-hadrians-wall-proves-celebrity-cult-of-gladiators-say-experts-1024x661.jpg",800,516,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/45\/2024\/11\/rare-roman-knife-handle-discovered-at-hadrians-wall-proves-celebrity-cult-of-gladiators-say-experts-1536x992.jpg",1536,992,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/45\/2024\/11\/rare-roman-knife-handle-discovered-at-hadrians-wall-proves-celebrity-cult-of-gladiators-say-experts-2048x1322.jpg",2048,1322,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbccountryfile\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"A rare Roman discovery at Hadrian's Wall has furthered speculation of gladiator's celebrity status","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbccountryfile\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/42123"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbccountryfile\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbccountryfile\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbccountryfile\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbccountryfile\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbccountryfile\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbccountryfile\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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