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20 Facts About Gladiators
Movies don’t tell the whole story.
Some time back I wrote a story about gladiator movies. And to my credit, I didn’t reference the movie, “Airplane.” If you watched gladiator movies you probably got the idea they were great warriors and dealt with identity theft. But there is much more to them than that. With that in mind, here are some things you probably didn’t know about gladiators.
1: Gladiators didn’t necessarily fight to the death.
They often fought to the “severely wounded.” They were viewed as a business asset and to have them killed off wasn’t good for their owner’s bottom line. The usual life expectancy of a gladiator was his mid-twenties. During that time, he had on average, ten fights.
So just like big business today, employees are kept around as long as they are able to make money for their employers. Some things don’t change.
2: What was the thing with the thumb?
Generally, we think thumbs down meant death, right? It actually may have meant the opposite. It might have meant show mercy. So, what did the thumbs up mean? The emperor was looking to hitch a ride. Wait, being told that’s wrong. It seems to have meant kill your opponent.
