Some people say to me, "Hey, you get out
of my garden." But other people say to
me, Lloyd, why didn't they use such and
such a thing in battle? Why wasn't this
weapon more popular? You know, I've
given this some thought. I think they
should have been using these. And one
thing that comes up is nets. I was asked
about it again recently, and so I'm
going to talk about why they didn't use
nets in battle. Now, of course, nets did
exist. You're probably familiar with the
retiarius, the fisherman gladiator. And
yes, these existed. They were quite
considered quite a low status gladiator.
They didn't weren't expected to win all
that many fights, but it was entertain
them entertaining to watch them try. And
let's not forget everyone that that
wasn't a death sentence because most
gladiators were volunteers and most of
them in most fights did not die. Uh
gladiators were very expensive to train
and you didn't want your stable of
gladiators dying all the flipping time.
That would be really expensive. So um
most of the time they didn't die.
Anyway, bit of a side side point that.
So the retiaris, yes, he did have a net,
but he was on the sand. The Roman word
for sand is arena. And so you you could
say he was on the arena rather than in
the arena, but because of the meaning in
modern English, I suppose both are
acceptable. Anyway, he was on the sand
dueling usually with his net in one hand
and his trident in the other or possibly
trident in that hand and net in that
side. You know, it's up to him which way
around he does it. Now, you may think
that a net can be made quite effective
because it can be weighted. It can be
quite large and you can put hooks on it
and so forth. So, in a battle, can you
imagine loads and loads of people
casting nets onto the front ranks of the
enemy and they'd all have these nets
flying over them. They come over their
spears and shields and there'll be hooks
digging into their flesh and they be
going, "Ouch, really? Ouch." And as they
try to get out, they'd be struggling and
then the enemy would be on them and
there'll be chaos and and and mutilation
and death and so forth and ultimate
shame and defeat. So, why didn't people
do this? Why didn't they cast nets over
their enemies in battle? Well, let's
think about this a little bit more. So,
imagine you've got an infantry formation
there. They've got the standard weapons,
which is spear and shield. Okay, so
you've got a net. Well, a small net
isn't going to isn't going to do it. If
you have a net that sort of big big
enough for a small fish or whatever, you
can't go
haha. That's just going to hit the front
of your shield, drop on the ground, and
embarrass everyone. So, um you need a
big net. It's got to engulf a man, his
eight foot spear, a shield, and and
maybe if they're standing quite close
together, maybe got to get around the
two guys next to him as well. And it's
really got to get right over them. And
and the weights have got to fly out.
This net has got to be cast broadly like
that. And it's got to be open in the
air. So, you need to really swing it
around this big net and cast it, aren't
you? So, you're going to need a lot of
room around you to do that. You can't
just go ha like that. That's not going
to work. You're going to have to swing
it round and cast this net. But you
can't do it from very far. The range of
such a a large net. You won't be able to
throw it more than a few yards. So,
you're going to be well within javelin
range, aren't you? And you can't wield a
large shield or anything whilst you're
doing this. It's a big net. And you
can't be in a dense formation because
you need loads of room around you to to
to swing this net. And so if you have a
load of net casters, they're going to be
spaced really quite far apart and
they're going to be hugely outnumbered
by the guys in front of them. So you
cast your net and as you're swinging
around and casting it or even advancing
to get into position to do so, they
could just throw a javelin at you and
then you'd be in trouble, wouldn't you?
Or even a guy might just run forward out
of line and lunge with a really long
spear and get you before you could cast
the net. And that would be embarrassing,
too, wouldn't it? Um, but let's imagine
that doesn't happen and you do actually
manage to cast the net. Well, think if
he's got a spear, he could just swap the
net out of the air and he's got other
guys next to him likely to be doing the
same thing. In fact, as you cast the
net, because you're so spaced out and
the enemy's in a dense formation, there
might be five guys all in a position to
just knock that net out of the air with
a spear. Oh dear. But wait a minute,
let's imagine for some reason they don't
manage that. They all try and fail and
the net does go over them and does
engulf them and they all going, "Oh,
I've got a net. Oh, by cranky. How do I
get out of this?" Well, almost no
ancient formation was one rank deep.
Going to be at least four ranks, quite
often eight ranks deep. And so, whilst
the front rank is just, oh, struggle,
struggle, struggle, all they actually
have to do is just kneel
down and uh let the guys behind them
replace them. And whilst they're sorting
themselves out behind, you've now got a
new front line which is now in a
position to charge a load of unarmed
guys with no shields and no nets. And
what are you going to do? Uh I strongly
recommend running away by the way at
that point. Um so as soon as you've cast
the net, what you've got to do is then
capitalize. You've got to whilst they're
still struggling, you've got to charge
in immediately. But with what? There are
only a few of you and you're quite
widely spaced. Yes, you could be thrown
out in front of another unit, but that's
going to be a little bit behind and
there's going to be a delay. And are you
really going to be want to be one of
those netcasters? Because what do you
think your chances of survival are as a
netcaster? I I mean, you know,
personally, I'd like to have a big
shield and a spear and lots of guys next
to me. I'd feel much much safer. Thanks.
Um, so by use using infantry against
other infantry like that is possibly
just not the most effective weapon. And
by and large, you want to give people
the most effective weapons. But but you
could use them for capturing people.
Surely, what if you had what if you had
horsemen with nets? You could gallop
after people and you could you could
cast a net over one of them as as he's
running away and you could tangle him up
and capture him. And and captives are
good, right? Yeah. But is that what your
officer wants you to be doing? You see,
if you've got a spear, you can go
gallop, gallop, gallop, gallop, stab,
gallop, gallop, gallop, gallop, gallop,
stab, gallop, gallop, gallop, gallop,
gallop, stab, and keep going. and uh
you're going to down loads of the enemy
and you can keep going and then maybe
the enemy realizing that he's surrounded
by cavalry because you've caught him up
and you've run run around him uh you
take a thousand prisoners. They just
throw it down. Okay, okay, fair enough.
And you get a thousand prisoners, that's
great, isn't it? But if you've got a
net, which is pretty big awkward thing
to have on your uh horse when it's not
being used, but then you've you've got
it there you for the route when there's
the opportunity to capture a straggler,
a prisoner. So you then get your net
out. It's not going to be easy to to
cast a net from a moving horse, but
let's imagine that you work out a way of
doing this. And you then cast accurately
your net onto one of the stragglers and
he goes down. Right? You're on a horse.
He's on the
ground. He's going to get out of that
net. I mean, it's not he's not sealed in
that doesn't tie itself up in knots.
It's it's only made out of ropes and so
forth. He's probably got a a knife or a
sword or something sharp on him. He'll
be able to cut his way out if he can't
get out by some other means. You're
gonna have to get right on that guy
really, really quickly. So, you're
probably going to have to dismount.
Okay. In the middle of a battle, uh,
okay, you've got to hold your horse with
one hand and say, "Right, you you're you
are my prisoner. Stop it. Just stop
struggling. Go." And he's quite
dangerous. He's a terrified man and he's
got weapons and he'd much rather be
somewhere else. And so, he's a dangerous
thing. He's going to take quite a bit of
dealing with. In fact, you're probably
going to need help. So, you flag down a
couple of your mates and but between two
or three of you, you're able to capture
this guy in a net. And so you and two
other guys have now come to a halt. And
what have you got? You've got one
personal prisoner. But your officers
commanding the army, they'd much rather
that you didn't stop three guys in order
to capture one opposition guy. You want
them chasing those routers on mass and
downing loads of the stragglers and
perhaps capturing the whole lot in one
big go and keeping them routing. That's
the job you're supposed to be doing, not
stopping in ones and twos and getting a
few me bagging a few stragglers for
yourselves. Um, so equipping your
cavalry with nets is not actually uh
very helpful for the the job of winning
the battle and taking mass prisoners.
And equipping your infantry uh probably
isn't terribly effective either. So yes,
in the arena or on the arena, it's an
entertaining match to see a Retiarius
versus a Seutor or Merurmadon or
whatever he's up against. But in a
battle, no, not really. Although this
hasn't stopped a number of video games
and and other representations of of the
past showing uh units of gladiators
actually equipped as gladiators in their
showbiz costumes uh in the field. No,
even even Spartacus and his lot when
they were in revolt uh generally didn't
dress as as uh gladiators. Perhaps right
at the very start if some of them had
grabbed some of the gladiatorial kit,
they might have been equipped that way,
but it's not the most practical stuff in
battle. And as soon as they had defeated
a load of Roman legionaries, they nicked
the Roman legionaries kit and equipped
themselves in military kit for actual
battle. Um, gladiators in the arena,
that's for entertainment. It's not
really for
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