The Cestus is a deadly hand held melee weapon that was born from an ancient sport known as Boxing but was most popular in the Roman Coliseum. Boxing wasn’t invented by the Americans, British, Italians, or Irish, despite its popularity in those nations. It didn’t originate from Mexico or Russia either. In fact none of these countries existed when evidence of boxing was discovered from over 3,000 years ago in the Mesopotamia region.
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| The Cestus (Art by TL Jeffcoat) |
Since this isn’t a history lesson on boxing, let’s get back to the Cestus. The Cestus is what the Greeks called the leather straps around their hands. When the Greeks first designed the Cestus, it was just leather. It was meant to soften the contact between an opponent’s face and the knuckles. This made boxing more of a sport than actual combat.
The Roman’s snatched the concept and went the complete opposite direction from safety. They fitted the leather straps with iron bands to make it easier to open someone’s skull or shatter ribs. It was easy to master which made it ideal for gladiators. You just punched like you would if you were boxing. This loop of iron strapped to the knuckles was eventually banned from the arena by 393 AD because a Cestus in hand to hand fighting was too bloody. Knowing what went on in the Coliseum, brawls with the Cestus must have been so bloody even the Godfather of Gore, Herschell Gordon Lewis, would be disgusted.
