History Forum / General / British History / December 2007

> Interestingly the motto of the Naval academy
> "Ex scientia tridens"  puzzles many  scholars
>
> it is literally "from knowledge the trident"
>
> which is routinely translated as sea power but that is quite an
> anachronistic extension  since the trident was also the weapon of the
> Retiarius or net gladiator, who was considered the most "effeminate" of
> the gladiators. e.g. only a Retiarius was allowed to "run away after a
> failed net cast, so he literally "presented his bottom" to his adversary
>
> Vince