INTRODUCTION In the United States Super Bowl Sunday is almost a national holiday Many Americans celebrate this annual competition to see which professional gridiron football team is truly the best Fans enjoy the thrill of celebrating with the winners or groaning with disappointment when their favored team doesn’t succeed Viewers feel very invested in the game the same can be said of the World Series the World Cup and other sports competitions it is truly enjoyable to watch matches between excellent competitors While sports fans today feel very connected to the game they are watching this is nothing compared to the way in which Romans participated in the sporting event of their day the gladiator games These enormous competitions took place in Rome between 264 BCE and 404 CE In the great arena known as the Colosseum men and women who had been training for years battled each other but not for trophies or rings The prize for defeating their opponents was simple but precious they would live Sometimes winners especially if they were favorites of the fans or of the emperor would be given a palm branch to symbolize victory or even prize money The greatest prize a gladiator could receive was a rudis a wooden sword that symbolized liberty the gladiator who was handed the rudis knew that he was now a free man But what of the loser Their fate was often decided by the fans These thousands of Romans who crowded the Colosseum to watch the games actually played an important role in their 6
A Roman mosaic depicts gladiators in the midst of battle 7
8 GLADIATORS outcomes The gladiator who lost the competition looked to them for his or her life to be spared The crowd could vote in one of two ways The crowd might dec ide to spare the life of the gladiator especially if he or she had put up a good fight or displayed heroism or bravery in some bold way There are several ways a spectator could express his or her interest in sparing the loser One was with the wave of a handkerchief another a popular hand gesture The gesture used in this case was a pollice compresso or compressed thumb in which the thumb is tucked or hidden inside the fist This meant that the glad iator should live to compete another day Alternatively pollice verso which means turned thumb in Latin was a gesture in which a person held up his hand with the thumb jutting out Some historians have mistakenly said that the thumb was turned up which
9 A rudis represented freedom to any gladiator awarded with the prize As depicted here the gladiator’s name was inscribed in Latin on the blade led to the thumbs up gesture that means good job today but this is not true there is no documentation that supports the idea that the thumb was turned up only out Perhaps the thumb sticking out in any direction represented a stabbing motion because the gladiator who received this gesture was usually put to death on the arena floor Crowds cheered as they watched the losing gladiator die From
