Salve Piscine,
salvete omnes,
Horatius Piscinus wrote:Recent examination of gladiator remains show that they were not wounded in combat, but rather the loser would sometimes be executed by a swift blow to the side of the head using a special instrument. There is no way of knowing for certain, but evidence suggests that deaths among gladiators in the arena were rare.
If a gladiator dropped his weapons and knelt down holding up his hand as a sign of surrender and the editor of the games decided not to grant him the
missio he was killed by his oponent who used the same weapons as in the fight. This was done either by a stab with the
gladius through the shoulder blade into the heart or a stab with the
gladius or
pugio in the throat. This was called
iugulatio and no special instrument was used for that. It was expected that the defeated gladiator accepted this without complaints and it was his last chance to show his
virtus.
From inscriptions of gravestones there are some facts known concerning the age and death of gladiators of which I would like to cite the following from the exhibition catalog of the special exhibition in Selcuk/Ephesos, Turkey:
* 21 years, 4 years training, death at 5th fight
* 22 years, 13 victories
* 23 years, 8 fights survived, death at 9th fight
* 25 years, 20 fights survived, 9 victories
* 27 years, 15 fights survived, death at 16th fight
* 30 years, 34 fights, 21 victories, 9 draws, 4 lost fights (
missio granted)
* 35 years, 20 victories
* 38 years, 18 victories
* 48 years, 19 victories, 20 years in service as gladiator
* 60 years, freed and retired gladiator
* 99 years, freed and retired gladiator
Generally it can be said that it was more likely for
tirones to lose their fights and die. The more fights a gladiator survived the more experienced he got and the more popular he got the more likely it was that the audience wanted the editor to grant him the
missio. The highest death rate was therefore among the tirones, but they could die of accidents at the training or illnesses.