Borosevo Sphinxes

The Borosevo Sphinxes are a team of professional gladiators based at the Borosevo Colosso on Emesh. They fight in advanced sensor armor painted green and gold — Imperial legionnaire white plate ceramic repainted in their team colors — with solid green faceplates that are unjointed and without eye slits. Their standard armament includes energy lances and belt knives, and the team is known for a tactic of throwing javelins.

The team is captained by Jaffa, who fights with a spear and is regarded as a serious threat. Another named gladiator is the red-haired fighter Amarei, who gives Hadrian his hardest-ever single-combat bout. In one arena engagement, five Sphinxes are sent against twenty myrmidons in what Pallino recognizes as a deliberate culling — a lopsided fight designed to thin the myrmidon ranks. Despite the advantage in arms and armor, the Sphinxes lose the engagement when Hadrian orchestrates a scatter-and-flank tactic. Jaffa later kills the myrmidon Banks in single combat.