3. Don’t Try And Fake Your Death, They Make Sure You’re Dead
You may think a gladiator had the bright idea of laying on the arena floor completely still with a bloody wound until he was carried out. Then he’d make his way through the amphitheater and escape a free man to live out his days. Wrong. Some gladiators may have tried this but the Romans had measures in place to prevent this from happening. They made sure you were truly dead and not just faking it to find your way to freedom.
After the gladiator was taken through the Porta Libitinensis and stripped of his armor, there was one more step of the process. His throat would be slit to make sure he was dead. If an unhonorable coward tried faking his death, as usual, it was worse. If a gladiator was declared dead in the arena, a slave would come and bash his head to mush with a large rock or a club used just for the purpose of beating unworthy opponents to death. It was impossible to escape your fate as a gladiator.
