In reality, Romans probably indicated the denial of mercy by placing their thumbs horizontally to symbolize a sword cutting the throat of the defeated gladiator. At the same time they shouted “Iugula! Iugula!” meaning “Throat! Throat!” In this case, the gladiator bowed and waited for ...
In the Roman mind, anything that had a 'zero' value was by definition not a number, and therefore could be expressed by the Latin words nihil or nulla, meaning 'nothing'. Roman Numerals were used as the standard numbering system until the 14th century, when they began to be replaced by...
When one thinks of 'terminator,' images of a violent destroying robot come to mind. But the word's origin, Terminus, actually refers to a boundary stone and Roman god whose purpose was to keep the peace. Read on for more of this history.
With the turn of the thumb (pollice verso)—no one knows for sure if the true meaning were "thumbs up" or "thumbs down"—the decision of the defeated gladiator’s fate was taken. If the gladiator were to receivemissio, he (or she) returned to theludusto fight another day. If death...
People will always complain about taxes, and Roman tax collectors could sometimes be vile customers: Rome “farmed” her taxes, meaning that she would set somebody, often one of the locals (Matthew, for instance, in the Gospels, or Zacchaeus), the task of squeezing a fixed take from his ...