Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Thrax

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Rich, Anthony (1849). The illustrated companion to the Latin dictionary, and Greek lexicon. p. vi. OCLC 894670115. https://archive.org/details/illustratedcompa00rich. 

THRAX, THRAEX, or THREX. A Thracian gladiator (Senec. Q. N. iv. 1.); so termed because he employed the same arms and accoutrements as the natives of Thrace; viz. a knife with a curved blade and sharp point (sica), and the small Thracian shield (Festus, s. v.), which was square in outline, but convex in surface, as exhibited by the illustrations (Thrax/1.1), both from devices on terra-cotta lamps. When fighting, he often received his opponent in a crouching or kneeling posture (Thrax/1.2), as here shown, which aptly illustrates and explains the allusion of Seneca (l. c.), who designates a person of lowly stature by assimilating him to the figure of a Thracian gladiator awaiting the attack.

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  Thrax/1.1
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  Thrax/1.2