The Colosseum: mistakes in the movies (and misconceptions around it)

1. If the Emperor wanted to deny mercy to a gladiator who lost a fight he would give the "thumbs down" signal. This is false. This typical mistake (i.e. Gladiator and many others) stems from the wrong interpretation of the Latin expression 'pollex versus' with which this gesture was described. 'Pollex versus' simply means 'with a thumb turned' but it doesn't specify where the thumb was actually turned by the Emperor (and by the audience). In reality, Romans most likely indicated the denial of mercy by moving their thumbs horizontally or up (!) to symbolize a sword cutting the throat of the poor defeated gladiator. While moving their thumbs this way they used to shout "Iugula! Iugula!" meaning in Latin "Cut off his throat!". The gladiator then bowed and waited for the blow to the throat or the nape. Usually, those doomed to die did not remove their helmets, so that the opponent could not see their last look. A touch of humanity in a tough world.

2. All gladiatorial combats ended with the death of one of the opponents. This is another widespread misconception. In the Republican era and in the first imperial age, contrary to the popular belief, the probability for the gladiators to exit the arena alive was not low. There were more risks of dying from deep wounds, infections or lack of courage (something that could enrage the spectators, who would consequently ask for the death of the coward gladiator) than by being denied mercy. The main reason is that gladiators were rented to whoever organized the combats in the Colosseum. If a gladiator was killed because mercy was denied, the organization of the games (meaning, many times, the Emperor) had to pay a sum of money to compensate the gladiator's entrepreneur of the missed earnings he could have got renting out that gladiator in future fights. This also means that the more famous and known was a gladiator the higher were the chances for him to get out alive since his rental price was very high.

3. Christians were killed in the Colosseum for their faith. This is one of the most enduring misconceptions of all. Christianism was legalized in 313 AD by Emperor Constantine and before that date, at times (and depending on the emperor in charge) Christians were persecuted for their religion. Actually, we don't have any trustworthy ancient document, any archaeological evidence or proof of any kind that can demonstrate beyond any doubt that Christians were killed in the Colosseum. More precisely, we can say that certainly some Christians were killed on the arena of the Colosseum but their faith was just an incidental element and not the main cause of their punishment. What can be seen in Quo Vadis for instance, is thus completely wrong.

4. Women were mixed up with men. In some scenes of the movie Gladiator we can see women mixed up with men in the Colosseum. This is something we would have never seen back to Roman times as women used to seat at the top level of the amphitheater. The places occupied by the audience were preassigned according to the social rank. Generally speaking, the more important was a person in ancient Rome, the closer he could seat to the stage; the least important he was, the farther he had to seat from the stage. Close by the arena there were the VIPs such as senators, Vestal virgins, ambassadors and so on. Above them there were the knights, then two sectors reserved to ordinary roman citizens and at the very top one could have found the undesirables of those times, that were slaves, poor people and women.

5. Before fighting, gladiators used to greet the Emperor shouting: "Those who are about to die, salute you!". Also in this case, we don't have any archaeological proof nor any textual evidence that this was said by gladiators before their combats. Furthermore, gladiators were not people convicted to death but athletes performing a (dangerous) sport. In some instances, games had to finish with the death of one of the two opponents but no tradition nor proof whatsoever reports that phrase being shouted by the performers. Many movies (including the excellent Spartacus by Stanley Kubrick) report thus a tradition that has not been confirmed by any proof.

6. The Colosseum was called as such by the Ancient Romans. In the movie Gladiator we can hear a few times the protagonists calling the Flavian Amphitheater as Colosseum. This is completely wrong as back to ancient times this monument was called Flavian Amphitheatre. The name comes from the Emperor who started its construction, that is Flavian Vespasian. The name Colosseum started to be used only in the Middle Ages. The most accepted explanation for that refers to the presence of a very big statue (the largest one ever made in ancient times) that was in the proximity of this amphitheatre. This statue represented first Nero and then the Sun, and it was called Colossus Neronis. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the people lost the memory of the real name of the Flavian amphitheatre and started to refer to it as Colosseum, the monument beside the Colossus. Colosseum is thus a (kind of) wrong nickname.