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In Roman times, a retiarius was a gladiator who wore a short tunic and was armed with a trident and net. He would face an opponent protected by a helmet and shield, and armed with a sword.
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Gladiators were combatants who fought at the public games in Rome for the entertainment of the spectators. The first instance known of gladiators being exhibited was in 264 BC, by Marcus and Decimus Pirutus at the funeral of their father. At first gladiators were prisoners, slaves, or condemned criminals; but afterwards freemen fought in the arena, either for hire or from choice; and latterly men of senatorial rank, and even women, fought.
The regular gladiators were instructed in schools known as ludi, and the overseer known as the lanista purchased the gladiators and maintained them. Men of position sometimes kept gladiatorial schools and lanistae of their own. The gladiators fought in the schools with wooden swords. In the public exhibitions, if a vanquished gladiator was not killed in the combat, his fate was sometimes decided by the people. If they wished his death, perhaps because he had not shown sufficient skill or bravery, they held up their thumbs; the opposite motion was the signal to save him. The victor received a branch of palm or a garland.
The gladiators were classified according to their arms and mode of fighting; thus there were retiarii who carried a trident and a net in which they tried to entangle their opponent; Thracians, who were armed with the round Thracian buckler and a short sword; secutores, who were pitted against the retiarii; etc.
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The retiarii were a class of ancient Roman gladiator. The retiarii were equipped with a trident and net, the net being used to entangle the opponent and the trident to then despatch them.
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Neptune was the Roman name for the Greek god Poseidon. He was the son of Saturn and Rhea, and the brother of Jupiter and Pluto. He is generally represented with a trident in his right hand, a dolphin in his left, and with one of his feet resting on part of a ship; in others in a chariot drawn by sea-horses, with a triton on each side. He was said to preside over horses and the manger.
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Zeus was the third king of the Greek gods. He had his throne on mount Olympus. He was a son of Cronos and Rhea. When Zeus was born, to prevent him from being eaten by his father, a fate which had befallen his five elder siblings, his mother gave him to mountain nymphs to raise in secret in Crete. On Crete, Zeus was brought up by Amalthea and was taught martial skills by the Curetes. Once grown, Zeus went to work for his father as a cupbearer, and upon giving his father a drink of nectar mixed with emetic herbs, caused Cronos to vomit up the now fully grown brothers and sisters of Zeus. This caused a war, with the Titans, led by Cronos, fighting the gods led by
Zeus. The war ended with victory for the gods who were provided with invincible weapon by the Cyclopes, including a helmet of invisibility for Hades, an earth-shaking trident for Poseidon, and a thunderbolt for Zeus. After the war
Zeus won possession of the sky, Hades the Underworld and Poseidon the sea. The earth was decreed common territory to be enjoyed by all.
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A trident is a three headed spear, looking rather like an oversized fork.
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Trident is the nuclear missile deployed on certain American nuclear-powered submarines. Each missile has eight warheads (MIRVs). The Trident replaced the earlier Polaris and Poseidon missiles.
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The Trident II missile is an intercontinental ballistic missile of 1360 cm length and 210 cm diameter weighing 59 tonnes. The Trident II flies at supersonic speed and has a three stage solid fuel rocket motor providing a range in excess of 11,000 kilometres. Missile guidance is provided by an INS, inertial navigation system, supported by stellar navigation. The missile is stored in its launch canister until firing. The Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty, SALT, limits the number of re-entry vehicles to eight per missile, but Trident II is capable of carrying up to 12 MIRVs, multiple independent re-entry vehicles, each with a yield of 100 kilotons.
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The De Havilland DH 121 Trident (later Hawker Siddeley Trident) was a British three-engined jet airliner of the early 1960's. The DH 121 was a cantilever, low-wing monoplane powered by three Rolls-Royce RB163 by-pass turbojet engines providing a maximum cruising speed of 975 kmh and a maximum range of 2900 km. The DH 121 carried up to 97 passengers, depending upon configuration, with economy class seats six-abreast.
An improved model, the Trident 1E, first flown in 1964, was powered by Rolls-Royce RB.163-25 Mk 511-5 Spey turbofans and an increased passenger capacity of 115. The Trident 1E was further refined into the Trident 2E in 1965 powered by Rolls-Royce Spey RB.163-25 Mk 512W turbofan engines and with increased fuel capacity enabling it to fly non-stop over BEA's then longest routes between London and the Middle East, and increased passenger accommodation for 115 passengers.
In June 1965, a Trident 1 belonging to BEA made the first automatic touch-down on a commercial airline service at London Airport.
A high-capacity short-haul version, the Trident 3 was also produced with the capacity for 146 passengers intended for routes up to 1870 km. This was later developed into the Trident 3B with improved engines providing an increased range of 2280 km.
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The 44 Virus is an overwriting computer virus written by Dark Helmet of the Trident organisation which infects .COM files including COMMAND.COM. The virus is loaded into memory by executing an infected program and then affects the computer's runtime operation and corrupts any files with an extension commencing C, such as . COM.
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The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
©1993 - 2009 The Probert Encyclopaedia
Southampton, United Kingdom
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