7. Some Thought Suicide Was Better Than Being A Gladiator
Not all men were convinced that fighting to your death in an arena for glory was a good idea. There are many instances in Ancient Rome documents where prisoners of war chose to end their own life before stepping into the ring. Symmachus, a 4th-century politician, collected 20 gladiators for an event. When it was time for the event to take place, they all killed each other, and the last man killed himself. It was a collective suicide that left the audience bewildered.
Another account was of a prisoner of war who was being transported back to the arena. He stuck his head into the moving wheel of the cart. Consequently, his neck was broken and he was free from entering a bloody battle. A German gladiator, while waiting to enter the arena, went to the bathroom and grabbed the stick for wiping bums. He jammed it down his throat, the filthy sponge on the end caused him to suffocate. So it seems that dying your way was better than dying brutally.
