Gladiators..

[Justiciar]

Just wondering, is it accurate that very few Gladiatorial fights ended in death, or is the more commonly portrayed version of "Thumbs Up Thumbs Down" true?

[orangat]

Its wasn't a quick thumbs down/up motion of the hand. The thumb was pointed downwards and thrusted towards at the base of the neck to signify death.

[Justiciar]

Not the answer I was hoping for, but thanks regardless. It's the first part of the question I'd like someone to clarify.

[Uesugi Kenshin]

From what I've heard few fights ended in death (my source being the History Channel for the most part), and they also said there is a good chance that thumbs down meant drop your weapon and let him/her live, while thumbs up and towards the heart meant deliver the coup de grace. I think I have heard this from other sources as well, but I couldn't say where.

[Perplexed]

The fights staged between professional gladiators only rarely resulted in death, since these men were far too expensive to kill off. If the investments people put into a gladiator simply ended in a cold corpse on a stretcher, then very quickly gladiatorial fights would become a most unattractive venue for the rich investors (i.e. gladiatorial trainers). So no, the best fighters were almost never killed, at least not in the arena. Also, they were treated very well, much better than the average slave, and were often very popular figures among the masses.

The people who were killed in droves in the arena were most of the time the worst criminals of Roman society, the noxii. They were simply thrown out into the arena without weapons to be cut down by the fully-armed professional gladiators. It was a creative death sentence for them, and one that satisfied the public's desire for real blood.

[Archayon]

I've read somewhere (forgot where ...) that some gladiators who lost the battle were left in the Arena. Roman soldiers picked them up, and sometimes executed them.
(i remember something of the article: it was something with a graveyard full of gladiators, they died because of a natural death, or they all received the same, critical blow: marks were found on the skelets. A possible explanation is the execution afterwards).


I heard of the fights of unarmed (or light armed) people against the trained gladiators too. I know of unarmed people fighting animals (like lions). Does anyone know if gladiators fought lions as well?



Arch

[Perplexed]

I heard of the fights of unarmed (or light armed) people against the trained gladiators too. I know of unarmed people fighting animals (like lions). Does anyone know if gladiators fought lions as well?

To me it seems unlikely that professional fighters would be put up against wild animals, or if they were only very rarely, because, unlike a gladiator, a lion doesn't know the rules of the arena, and will either kill it's opponent or be killed. This makes the outcome of the fight much more dangerous, and a danger to the gladiator means a danger to the trainer's wallet. Again, money is the underlying key here.

Of course, for the same reason that the noxii were allowed to be butchered by the gladiators, they were allowed to be mauled by wild animals. It was an execution far more entertaining than crucifixion.

[Conqueror]

Weren't the games often funded by Roman politicians vying for popular support? I don't see any reason why a rich politician couldn't simply pay the trainers some blood money if he wanted to run a dramatic fight to the death...

[The Spartan (Returns)]

ive also heard that many gladiators live at the end. and i heard the opposite.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Drawn from Etruscan tradition.

Republican gladitorial combats were usually conducted by professionals at funeral games and were not paid for by the state. Deaths occurred, but were infrequent. Other fights involved war captives, paired off against one another as a quasi-religious offering. Deaths were a part of this offering (even though Romans disdained human sacrifice in other religious venues).

As the Republic drifted toward empire (Sulla onward) condemned slaves fighting to the death became more of a fixture. Gladiator pairs were expensive, so death was not an automatic feature unless condemned criminals were involved.

This "sport" got bloodier and bloodier as the Empire progressed, though laws would vary according to the emperor's tastes.

[Red Peasant]

I've seen a rough figure reckoned for 4 out of 5 gladiators surviving normal games. However, there were known to be special 'last-man standing' type tournaments in which the survival rate was, naturally, very small indeed!

[Leet Eriksson]

I read somewhere that women, midgets and disabled were also used as arena fodder, but it wasn't a "serious" match more of a pre-match parody to set the audiences mood before the real games start.

Anyone know anything about it?

[Avicenna]

I don't know why Faizz, but the midgets really has me LMAO.