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A cestus is an ancient battle glove. In effect, it is the classical world's equivalent to brass knuckles, sometimes used in pankration, the Greek combat sport that combined boxing and wrestling. The first version of a cestus was a series of leather straps wrapped around the hand and forearm; later Roman versions were reinforced with iron, lead and studs until the glove was a weapon in its own right. This page explains how the cestus developed, what it was made of, and its place in ancient athletics and gladiatorial combat.
A cestus is an ancient battle glove. In effect, it is the Classic world's equivalent to brass knuckles, sometimes used in pankration.
The first version of a cestus was a series of leather thongs that were tied over the hand. Greeks used them in their hand-to-hand competitions, where only knock out mattered.
In Roman Latin, cestus referred to leather that was wrapped or bound over anything, including items like belts. Romans modified the leather thongs by adding metal parts, including studs and iron plates. Some of them had fixed spikes over the knuckles.
More dangerous versions of the same weapon included the myrmex or "limb-piercer", and the originally Greek sphairai, thin leather thongs with cutting blades.
Cesti were usually used in gladiator bouts where otherwise unarmed combatants - usually slaves - fought to the death. This form of boxing became increasingly bloody until the cestus was officially banned in the 1st century BC. Hand-to-hand fighting was banned in 393 AD.
The Boxer of Quirinal in Rome is the most famous statue in bronze. The sitting statue has the cesti on its hands.
A cestus (plural cesti) is a belt or girdle worn by women in ancient Greece.
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The above article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/cestus). 1/18/06 |
Greek boxing began with soft leather thongs, the himantes, wound to support the wrist and knuckles while leaving the fingers free. Over centuries the bindings grew harder and heavier, with a thick leather striking pad over the knuckles, and Roman taste pushed the development to its extreme in the gladiatorial cestus, studded and plated for spectacle combat. Ancient writers treated bouts fought in the heavier gloves as brutal affairs, and the contrast between the athlete's protective strap and the gladiator's weapon marks the line between sport and show fighting in the ancient world.
The cestus survives in art and literature — statues of boxers show the straps wound up the forearm — and in the vocabulary of classical scholarship. As a garment it sits at the very edge of clothing: a piece of equipment worn on the body, made by leatherworkers, and classified with dress because it was strapped on and worn into the contest like any athlete's gear.
References to the cestus appear throughout classical writing on athletics, where the glove marks the boundary between the trained athlete and the professional fighter. Modern combat sports use padded gloves for the opposite purpose — to limit damage — which underlines how different the ancient contest was: the cestus protected the striker's hand first and foremost, and only the earliest soft versions offered the opponent any mercy at all.
A cestus is a fighting glove of the ancient Greek and Roman world: leather straps wound around the hand, knuckles and forearm to protect the hand and add force to a blow. It was worn in boxing and in pankration, the mixed combat sport of the ancient games.
Like brass knuckles, the cestus concentrates and hardens the striking surface of the fist. Early Greek versions were leather thongs that mainly protected the hand, but Roman versions added metal plates, lead and studs, turning the glove into a damaging weapon.
Pankration was the ancient Greek combat sport combining boxing and wrestling, permitting strikes, throws, joint locks and chokes — nearly everything except biting and eye-gouging. The cestus belonged to its boxing side, protecting and arming the fighter's hands.