Spartacus: Blood and Sand Gladiator Costume

[obejuan]

Hi everyone! This is my first post!

I'd like to ask a question to all you experts.

I'm addicted to the Starz series Spartacus: Blood and Sand. Any ideas on how to replicate the gladiator costumes?

Not to be confused with the Russell Crowe gladiator costume. I'm talking about the Spartacus, Crixus arena costumes.

Thanks!

 

[Riceball]

Some screencaps would help some since I don't think most people would be able to help without some kind of reference first.

Off hand, I know that you can buy replica gladiator gear online from pretty much any place that sells Depeeka stuff, those would probably be the cheapest and easiest to get. However, they would be made of real metal and while they might be based on historical examples they might not match the show exactly and be hard to modify. Your best bet, if you have the time, money, and skill, would be to attempt to scratch build it that way you can make it lighter and more accurate to the show. If you don't have the time and/or skill you could try commissioning somebody to do it for you, you'd mostly have to worry about the helmet and shield, the sword you can probably find online try searching for gladii (plural of gladius). A good place to start is Museum Replicas, they're a big seller of Depeeka stuff, from there you can search for things that you see there that's the type of item you're looking for but isn't exact; hopefully that will lead to other sites that sell something that's closer to what you're looking for.

My only other advice would be to tread very carefully before considering posting this question in a historical or Roman reenactor forum. From what I've seen they can be a bit snobbish and bash and/or look down on anyone attempting anything that's not completely historically accurate. However, they are a wealth of information on where to find replica Roman gear and you might find leads to sites selling repro galdiator gear. Here's one that I browse: http://www.romanarmytalk.com

Good luck on your project, be sure to post pics if you get started. I love this show too and would love to see somebody try and pull off the gladiator costumes since this, like 300 costumes, requires the wearer be in pretty good shape to pull it off.

 

[Riceball]

I managed to find a pretty decent screencap of Crixus & Spartacus in the arena, were these the costume you were thinking of?

 

[THEMAN]

Thank goodness he's not going for the bathroom scenes look!

 

[obejuan]

I managed to find a pretty decent screencap of Crixus & Spartacus in the arena, were these the costume you were thinking of?

Yes sir, those are the costumes!

The bathroom scenes - I can just wrap a dirty gym towel around my waist. Great idea! :confused

 

[oculus1857]

Thank goodness he's not going for the bathroom scenes look!

That would be popular with all the ladies at any Con or occasion just now with Security or small childern :lol

Screen caps will have to be gathered. I have an interest in this as well. Particularly with the armor used in episode 10 of the series during the Senator Son's man hood party.

 

[Riceball]

I'm not sure which one is on the right side of the screen cap I posted but I just watched a documentary on gladiators and it looks like the one on the right more or less fits the profile of what was known as a thrax or Thracian type of gladiator, that should help in tracking down the shield. The shield or scutum on the left looks larger than the one on the right and could be a standard sized legion scutum but it looks a little small for that to me.

 

[obejuan]

The one on the right is Spartacus. The left is Crixus.

I'm after the following costume pieces:

1. Waist belt (Looks like a modified weight lifting belt)
2. Undergarment
3. Sash
4. Shin guards
5. Right arm guard
6. Left arm wrappings
7. Sword
8. Sandals

Thanks!

 

[oculus1857]

This isn't much, but 'Muscle and Fitness' had a spread talking about the show. Here are some pics.

 

[BRRogers]

The one on the right is Spartacus. The left is Crixus.

I'm after the following costume pieces:

1. Waist belt (Looks like a modified weight lifting belt)
2. Undergarment
3. Sash
4. Shin guards
5. Right arm guard
6. Left arm wrappings
7. Sword
8. Sandals

Thanks!

I can tell you with a great deal of certainty that nothing made in this show is a "modified" anything, with the exception of perhaps some of the gladiatorial armor possibly being 'weathered'.

If you want those pieces they'll have to be custom.

OTHERWISE, you can find a lot 'close enough' armor utilizing a google search for "Gladiator armor and weapons":
Here's what my search yielded:

helmets:
http://search.store.yahoo.net/cgi-bin/nsearch?catalog=yhst-87491460501412&query=gladiator

weapons and some armor:
http://www.kultofathena.com/roman.asp

Still looking for more...

 

[obejuan]

Much gratitude to you all..

 

[Riceball]

The one on the right is Spartacus. The left is Crixus.

I'm after the following costume pieces:

1. Waist belt (Looks like a modified weight lifting belt)
2. Undergarment
3. Sash
4. Shin guards
5. Right arm guard
6. Left arm wrappings
7. Sword
8. Sandals

Thanks!

The belt is a gladiator's belt, you can probably try modding a weigh lifting belt although I don't think they go as tall as the gladiator belt does. You can find similar belts here: http://romegiftshop.com/romanleather.html

The sash would be the easiest to recreate, it would mostly be a matter of finding a natural material (cotton, wool, hemp, etc.) in the right color and weathered to look nice and used.

For shin guards you'll want to search for greaves otherwise you'll come up with just a lot of sporting equipment. Considering the work you'd have to do to get any set of greaves to match either Spartacus or Crixus I'd look at a set of Halloween costume greaves that you could use a base and modify to match; using a set of real metal greaves would be costly and sort of a waste and much harder to modify.

For the right arm guard you'll want to search for manica. Crixus wears a manica of just mail which you might be able to find or commission an armorer to make for you. Spartacus' appears to be made of overlapping metal plates and probably doesn't have any historical basis but could be fairly easily made through either vacforming or heating pieces of syntra into shape or just about any other method; the only thing is that there a lot plates so making them will take quite a while especially since they don't all appear to be the same size.

The left arm wrapping I can't quite see so I can't really offer much advice there.

As for swords, Crixus appears to use a standard gladius and there's a lot of different ones to choose from and possibly even ones that are labeled as gladiator gladii. Spartacus sword is unique to the Thrax type gladiator that he fights as and I haven't seen any replicas of those being sold anywhere but that doesn't mean that someone somewhere doesn't make a replica. For Spartacus' sword you might want to find historical gladiator reencactor forums for advice on finding a Thrax sword unless you or someone you know can forge a sword for you or plan on faking the blade with wood or some sort of plastic.

Their sandals are probably based on Roman legionary caligae (here's a little historical trivia, the Emperor Caligula derives his name from caliga; Caligula means little boots a nickname given to him by his father's troops). There are lots of different sources for caligae and I'd search for them as Roman sandals as well as under their proper name for more results so that you're more likely to find something matching the ones worn on Spartacus.

Hope all of this helps.

 

[oculus1857]

Riceball - VERY informative post. I like it! Lots to absorb here. Love the history lesson on the shoes. :lol I just need to get a proper screen capture program for episode 10. I can't get over that armor.

 

[Riceball]

Riceball - VERY informative post. I like it! Lots to absorb here. Love the history lesson on the shoes. :lol I just need to get a proper screen capture program for episode 10. I can't get over that armor.

Thanks, glad to be of help. Finally a costume that I can provide useful input/advice one.:lol

 

[Chadrificus]

I am in the process of bulking up physically just for this costume, so I'm bumping this thread to keep it on the top page to keep up with you guys and offer advice when possible. (I do leather work and so want to assist if I can!)

 

[SithsPadawan]

its gonna be hard to bulk up for this
ive been doing weighs for a few months now and i still dont have defined abs

im just trying to slim down and gain some tone is all
so bulking up is gonna take some major trips to the gym

 

[obejuan]

I'm glad to hear there are other folks wanting to join the ranks of the gladiators! Right now, I'm not about to squeeze into the costume. However, since march I'm running and doing weight training circuts on alternating days. I've also changed my diet considerably. Now I'm eating much healthier. My starting weight was 205. I now weigh in at 197. I'd like to get down to 180. I was hoping to get a gladiator costume by wizard world in august. I don't know if that's realistic now. Maybe by Halloween.

Btw, did you catch the last episode "kill them all"? It was awesome!

 

[omegaman]

Hi you all, just found this forum while looking for props of this great series.
Though I am a gladiatorial combat reenactor I liked the series very muich, as they at least tried a little to get the equipment right in contrast to the complete fantasy stuff Gladiator the movie portraied.
As far as the helmets they use in the series are concerned, you see clearly the mentioned Deepeeka stuff a lot in the fist two episodes.
These helmets arnt realy historicaly correct anyway, but as they are of quite thin steel or brass in contrast to the thick bronze originals they dont weight so much and a lot of Gladiator reenactors start out with these helmets.
The helmets of Solonius Gladiators are all recolored and weatherd versions of these basic helmets:
http://legvi.tripod.com/armamentarium/id121.html
To be more preciese the Murmillo had a AH6203B Gladiator III
The Hoplomachus (with the spear): had a AH6208B Thraex Helmet
And the axewielder had a Secutor AH6209B Secutor II.

In the screen cap shown here you see the same Deepeeka helmets but heavily modified.
The Murmillo helmet of Crixus is the AH6203B Gladiator III with halve of the visor grates removed to show more of the actors expression and the crest replaced with a sculpted ?Sabertooth? head.

The Thraex of Spartacus looks like a AH6207 Thracian II and has the visor similarily adapted to show more of the actors face - I guess the earlier atempt with the shots showing the face inside the helmet during fights looked to weird to be continued.
The front of the helmets ridgeline has been sheard of and bent down to meet in front of the nose and a new sculpted crest ahs been added.
As I still have an old AH6207 Thracian II (which is actually a Murmilo because of the angular crest) lying around here I might give it a try to replicate the basic look of this helmet.

BTW: I am a member of Roman Army Talk and we are actually quite friendly and civilised in pointing out inacurracies in historical gear portrait in TV and movie productions

 

[cmoneysal]

I am in the process of bulking up physically just for this costume, so I'm bumping this thread to keep it on the top page to keep up with you guys and offer advice when possible. (I do leather work and so want to assist if I can!)

what kind of leather would you say the shoulder armor is made of?

 

[Riceball]

BTW: I am a member of Roman Army Talk and we are actually quite friendly and civilized in pointing out inaccuracies in historical gear portrait in TV and movie productions

Welcome to the RPF, Omegaman; good to have one of the experts from the RAT over here and contributing. I'm not a member of RAT myself but I do lurk there a lot and I find a lot of the info there very interesting if a bit over my head at times. You'll find that there a lot of the same kind of people here as on RAT, just switch out historically accurate for canon and you'll find the same attention to detail as well as some of the same debates.

Definitely looking forward to what a Roman history/gladiator expert can contribute to this thread. With your input this thread will, hopefully, move some more and we can start seeing some Spartacus costumes being made.