Fun Fact #318 Casting a legend

 Fun Fact #318

Casting a Legend

If you were a roman gladiator, what did you most fear? Lions? Tigers? Bears? How about some guy with a net? Yet this was the reality as gladiators stylized around fishermen (Retiarius) used weighted nets and proved to be some of the deadliest competitors in the sport–Including the second most famous gladiator ever to compete: Marcus Attilius. While nets have never been a popular weapon their widespread use in cast-fishing has made them easily accessible as an improvised weapon. An odd use of the net was to affix greenery, rounds and other items to helmets in the 20th century to act as camouflage or identifying markers. 

Casting the Net, by Murad al-Daghistani, 1930s