lănista, ae, m., a trainer of gladiators, fencing-master (class.; cf.: gladiator, athleta, pugil).
I Lit.: num ille lanista omnino jam a gladiatore recessisse videtur, Cic. Rosc. Am. 40, 118: reus, tamquam clemens lanista, id. Att. 1, 16, 3: regia verba lanistae, Juv. 11, 8: circumforaneus, Suet. Vit. 12: lanistarum familias ex urbe expellere, id. Aug. 42; Juv. 6, 215.—So of fowls: rixosarum avium, Col. 8, 2, 5.—
II Transf., an inciter, instigator, agitator; one who stimulates to wrong or violence : hic se ad eum lanistam contulit, Cic. Rosc. Am. 6, 17: ne videret unius corporis duas acies, lanista Cicerone, dimicantes. Ego lanista? Cic. Phil. 13, 19, 40: lanistis Aetolis dimicare, Liv. 35, 33, 6.