There’s a lot of myths about gladiators. For one thing, most fights were not to the death, but to first blood. Gladiators were expensive investments, and their owners couldn’t afford to lose half of them in every fight. Death matches were generally only the last fight of the day, kind of the main event. Even then, if both fought well, they were often spared. And if they did survive, winning gladiators were usually freed after 3 years.
Finally, thumbs down didn’t mean death. It meant weapons down, let him live. Death was signified by a finger across the throat. Thank Cecil B. DeMille for that particular myth.
The thumbs up or down thing is more dramatic
I think there’s considerable debate among historians about what signal was used to signify death or mercy.
But you are correct about how very inaccurate Hollywood’s portrayal of ancient Rome has generally been.
In case we get the idea that The Games weren’t as bloody as you might think, what with most of the contests only to first blood, they had “special events.”
Theatrical enactments of myths, with actual live rape, dismemberment, burning alive on stage, etc.
At intermission criminals were fed to animals. The criminals sometimes included Christians. On one memorable occasion under the Republic, a wealthy aristo was murdered. The law required all his slaves to be executed for not preventing it. So several hundred men, women and children were executed at the Games.
Nero wrapped Christians in shrouds soaked in pitch, mounted them on poles and used them for lighting.
Captured enemy soldiers were often forced to fight each other to the death two at a time, with the winner fighting the next in line, up to a hundred or more. The last man standing was generally freed.
For many centuries, the rare criticism of the Games was based not on their brutality, which the Romans considered positive, but on their popularity with the lower classes.
True about thumbs down. I think I’d read that a thumb to the chest was the move for “finish him”. CB may not have originated that, but it definitely makes sense to a modern audience without a footnote. :’)
Gladiators were very highly trained for specific fighting styles and fed a special diet producing a layer of harder fat around the body that reduced bruising of the muscles. Greaves and other armor were laid on top of a thick layer of padding: the only thing worse than a dead gladiator was a maimed or wounded one.
The physician Galen established his fame by reducing the mortality rate from wounds by half at a gladiator school. His position also afforded the opportunity for dissection and the close study of anatomy.
Despite the rules and opportunity for mercy, I have read that the chances of survival through the number of bouts required to earn freedom was probably less than 10%.
The only tie I ever read about came during some games under Domitian where two friends who had known in each in the same school were opposed and fought until each had disarmed the other of sword, shield and dagger and both were left trying to wrestle one another until they both collapsed from exhaustion. The emperor himself presented both with laurels.
Yes, the finger across the throat was common and i believe the thumbs up or finger up meant send him to the gods.