Editing Gladiator (section)

===Death and disposal===
A gladiator who was refused ''missio'' was despatched by his opponent. To die well, a gladiator should never ask for mercy, nor cry out.<ref>{{harvnb|Futrell|2006|p=140}}. Futrell is citing Cicero's ''Tuscullan Disputations'', 2.17.</ref> A "good death" redeemed the gladiator from the dishonourable weakness and passivity of defeat, and provided a noble example to those who watched:<ref>{{harvnb|Wiedemann|1992|pp=38–39}}.</ref>

<blockquote>
For death, when it stands near us, gives even to inexperienced men the courage not to seek to avoid the inevitable. So the gladiator, no matter how faint-hearted he has been throughout the fight, offers his throat to his opponent and directs the wavering blade to the vital spot. (Seneca. ''Epistles'', 30.8)</blockquote>

Some mosaics show defeated gladiators kneeling in preparation for the moment of death. Seneca's "vital spot" seems to have meant the neck.<ref>{{harvnb|Edwards|2007|pp=66–67}}.</ref> Gladiator remains from Ephesus confirm this.<ref>{{harvnb|Curry|2008}}. Marks on the bones of several gladiators suggest a sword thrust into the base of the throat and down towards the heart.</ref>
[[File:GladiatorFeldflasche.jpg|thumb|A flask depicting the final phase of the fight between a ''[[murmillo]]'' (winning) and a ''[[thraex]]'']]
The body of a gladiator who had died well was placed on a couch of [[Libitina]] and removed with dignity to the arena morgue, where the corpse was stripped of armour, and probably had its throat cut as confirmation of death. The Christian author [[Tertullian]], commenting on ''ludi meridiani'' in Roman [[Carthage]] during the peak era of the games, describes a more humiliating method of removal. One arena official, dressed as the "brother of Jove", [[Dis Pater]] (god of the underworld) strikes the corpse with a mallet. Another, dressed as [[Mercury (mythology)|Mercury]], tests for life-signs with a heated "wand"; once confirmed as dead, the body is dragged from the arena.<ref>By Tertullian's time, Mercury was identified with Greek [[Hermes#Epithets|Hermes psychopompos]], who led souls into the underworld. Tertullian describes these events as examples of hollow impiety, in which Rome's false deities are acceptably impersonated by low and murderous persons for the purposes of human sacrifice and evil entertainment. See {{harvnb|Kyle|1998|pp=155–168}}.</ref>

Whether these victims were gladiators or ''noxii'' is unknown. Modern pathological examination confirms the probably fatal use of a mallet on some, but not all the gladiator skulls found in a gladiators' cemetery.<ref>{{harvnb|Grossschmidt|Kanz|2006|pp=207–216}}.</ref> Kyle (1998) proposes that gladiators who disgraced themselves might have been subjected to the same indignities as ''noxii'', denied the relative mercies of a quick death and dragged from the arena as carrion. Whether the corpse of such a gladiator could be redeemed from further ignominy by friends or ''familia'' is not known.<ref>{{harvnb|Kyle|1998|pp=40, 155–168}}. ''Dis Pater'' and Jupiter Latiaris rituals in Tertullian's ''Ad Nationes'', 1.10.47: Tertullian describes the offering of a fallen gladiator's blood to [[Jupiter (mythology)|Jupiter Latiaris]] by an officiating priest—a travesty of the offering of the blood of martyrs—but places this within a ''munus'' (or a festival) dedicated to Jupiter Latiaris; no such practice is otherwise recorded, and Tertullian may have mistaken or reinterpreted what he saw.</ref>

The bodies of ''noxii'', and possibly some ''damnati'', were thrown into rivers or dumped unburied;<ref>{{harvnb|Kyle|1998|p=14 (including note #74)}}. Kyle contextualises Juvenal's ''panem et circenses''—bread and games as a sop to the politically apathetic plebs (Satires, 4.10)—within an account of the death and ''damnatio'' of [[Sejanus]], whose body was torn to pieces by the crowd and left unburied.</ref> Denial of funeral rites and memorial condemned the shade (''manes'') of the deceased to restless wandering upon the earth as a dreadful ''[[lemures|larva'' or ''lemur]]''.<ref>Suetonius. ''Lives'', "Tiberius", 75. Suetonius has the populace wish the same fate on [[Tiberius]]'s body, a form of ''damnatio'': to be thrown in the Tiber, or left unburied, or "dragged with the hook".</ref> Ordinary citizens, slaves and freedmen were usually buried beyond the town or city limits, to avoid the ritual and physical pollution of the living; professional gladiators had their own, separate cemeteries. The taint of ''infamia'' was perpetual.<ref>{{harvnb|Kyle|1998|pp=128–159}}.</ref>
[[File:Borghese gladiator 1 mosaic dn r2 c2.jpg|thumb|center|550px|Part of the [[Gladiator Mosaic]], displayed at the [[Galleria Borghese]]. It dates from approximately 320 AD. The Ø symbol is the theta nigrum ("black [[theta]]") or theta infelix ("unlucky theta"), a [[Symbols of death|symbol of death]] in Greek and Latin [[epigraphy]].<ref>Its name  was coined in the modern era, by [[Theodore Mommsen]]: in the Roman military, it marked the death of a soldier. See {{cite journal |last=Mednikarova  |first=Iveta |title=The Use of Θ in Latin Funerary Inscriptions |journal=Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik|volume=136 |date=2001 |pages=267–276 |jstor=20190914 }}</ref>]]