Funny enough, the Romans themselves had strong ideas about the ‘balance’ of match-ups. It was considered that a decent retiarius (the fisherman fellow) would generally lose to a decent murmillo (the helmeted one), but that an excellentretiarius would usually win against even an excellent murmillo.
Also, the fisher motif is intentional - the murmillo wore partly scaled armor (as can be seen on the arms) and often had fish motifs on their helmet! Fish vs. Fisherman!
You may also find it interesting that there was a ‘special’ match-up (the Romans had many, but we know the details of only a few) that was relatively common where one (expert) retarius would be on a raised platform, and have to fend off two heavier gladiators from coming up two sets of stairs.
It was considered to be a balanced (and exciting) match, if the retiarius was a master!
Funny enough, the Romans themselves had strong ideas about the ‘balance’ of match-ups. It was considered that a decent retiarius (the fisherman fellow) would generally lose to a decent murmillo (the helmeted one), but that an excellent retiarius would usually win against even an excellent murmillo.
Also, the fisher motif is intentional - the murmillo wore partly scaled armor (as can be seen on the arms) and often had fish motifs on their helmet! Fish vs. Fisherman!
I have to say, that’s actually really neat. And I can see an expert retiarius being really hard to beat with the entanglement and reach they have.
You may also find it interesting that there was a ‘special’ match-up (the Romans had many, but we know the details of only a few) that was relatively common where one (expert) retarius would be on a raised platform, and have to fend off two heavier gladiators from coming up two sets of stairs.
It was considered to be a balanced (and exciting) match, if the retiarius was a master!