High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! There were many different types of gladiator in ancient Rome. Some of the first gladiators had been prisoners-of-war, and so some of the earliest types of gladiators, Gauls, Samnites, and Thraeces (Thracians) used their native weapons and armor. Different gladiators specialized in different weapons, and it was usual to pair off combatants with widely different, but more or less equivalent, equipment. As a rule gladiators only fought others from within the same school or troupe but sometimes specific gladiators could be requested to fight one from another troupe.