Andabata

Overview

The andabata is one of the most rarely mentioned and least documented types of the Roman arena. The fighters wore a closed helmet with no eye-slit, or one designed with a very narrow field of vision, so they fought each other essentially blind. The scene may have been comic in character: the two blind fighters groped for one another while the crowd egged them on.

Historical accuracy and our shows

The Collegium Gladiatorium's shows evoke the events of the post-Augustan 1st–2nd centuries AD (c. AD 14–200). The andabata:

• Its only certain contemporary mention comes from 53 BC (Cicero's letter to Trebatius) — this is Republican, and earlier than the start of our period.
• There is no attestation for it from the 1st–2nd centuries AD; from the 3rd century (Pseudo-Cyprian, De Spectaculis 7) a reference to blindfolded fighters is known — an indirect, late, Christian polemical source.
• In terms of function it was rather an archaic, possibly comic interlude (similar to the paegniarius) — not a main attraction.

For this reason the andabata does not appear regularly in our shows. At most it may feature as a curiosity, a short interlude, or a character-story reference (for instance in a fighter's past) — and whenever it does, we always note that the type already belongs to Republican-era humour, and that in the imperial period it was rare and of uncertain status.

Images

Not a single ancient helmet, relief, mosaic or stele is known that could be identified with certainty as an andabata. "Closed-helmet" gladiator figures (for example certain secutor depictions) are sometimes wrongly labelled as andabata, but this identification cannot be substantiated.

The ancient sources (very few)

• Cicero, Ad Familiares VII.10.2 (53 BC) — a letter written to Trebatius Testa: "deprived even of the pleasure of the andabata fight". This is the only contemporary literary mention.
• Pseudo-Cyprian, De Spectaculis 7 (3rd c. AD) — refers to blindfolded fighters in a Christian polemical context; a much later source.
• The Varro passage cited by the 19th-century handbooks is not to be found in the surviving fragments — probably a false attribution that popular literature keeps passing on.

Equipment (reconstruction)

• Helmet — closed, spherical or bell-shaped; the eye-slit is either absent or very narrow. This is the only certain element.
• Shield and sword — uncertain; no material find can be tied to an andabata.
• Mounted variant — a tradition of the 19th-century handbooks, not confirmed by any ancient source.

Typical opponent

Cicero's phrasing suggests that two andabatae fought each other — no pairing against another weapon class is documented.

Disputed elements

• The "blind horseman" reconstruction is specifically of 19th-century origin, not ancient.
• Whether its performance was comic, or "merely" an extremely difficult form of combat, is a matter of debate.
• The continuity of the type between the 1st and 3rd centuries AD is unattested.
• The origin of the word is uncertain (Delamarre suggests it may be a Gaulish loanword).