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Pollice verso or verso pollice () is a Latin phrase, meaning "with a turned thumb", that is used in the context of Gladiator. It refers to a hand gesture or thumb signal used by Ancient Rome crowds to pass judgment on a defeated gladiator following duels in .
The precise gesture described by the phrase pollice verso, and its meaning, are the subject of scholarly debate.
According to Anthony Corbeill, a classical studies professor who has extensively researched the practice, thumbs up signalled killing a gladiator, while "a closed fist with a wraparound thumb" meant sparing him. Where Does the 'Thumbs-Up' Gesture Really Come From?, Time
Zoologist Desmond Morris describes human gestures of this type to be culturally determined and transmitted.
Juvenal uses verso pollice in the Satires:
Prudentius mentions the thumb gesture ( converso pollice), used by a Vestal virgin who delights in the carnage:
inde ad consessum caveae pudor almus et expers sanguinis it pietas hominum visura cruentos congressus mortesque et vulnera vendita pastu spectatura sacris oculis. sedet illa verendis vittarum insignis phaleris fruiturque lanistis. o tenerum mitemque animum! consurgit ad ictus et, quotiens victor ferrum iugulo inserit, illa delicias ait esse suas, pectusque iacentis virgo modesta iubet converso pollice rumpi, ne lateat pars ulla animae vitalibus imis altius inpresso dum palpitat ense secutor.'' | Then on to the gathering in the amphitheatre passes this figure of life-giving purity and bloodless piety the, to see bloody battles and deaths of human beings and look on with holy eyes at wounds men suffer for the price of their keep. There she sits conspicuous with the awe-inspiring trappings of her head-bands and enjoys what the trainers have produced. What a soft, gentle heart! She rises at the blows, and every time a victor stabs his victim’s throat she calls him her pet; the modest virgin with a turn of her thumb bids him pierce the breast of his fallen foe so that no remnant of life shall stay lurking deep in his vitals while under a deeper thrust of the sword the fighter lies in the agony of death.Prudentius. Reply to Symmachus, Book II, in Prudentius Volume II, translated by H. J. Thomson, Loeb Classical Library 398, pp. 93-95. |
The painting almost immediately kicked off a controversy over the accuracy of Gerome's use of the thumbs-down gesture by spectators in the Colosseum. A 26-page pamphlet published in 1879, "Pollice Verso": To the Lovers of Truth in Classic Art, This is Most Respectfully Addressed, reprinted evidence for and against the accuracy of the painting, including a letter dated 8 December 1878 from Gérôme himself. "Pollice Verso": To the Lovers of Truth in Classic Art, This is Most Respectfully Addressed, pamphlet dated April 10, 1879, Paris. Gérôme's painting greatly popularized the idea that thumbs up signaled life, and thumbs down signaled death, for a defeated gladiator. The gesture is used in many movies about Ancient Rome, including the 2000 film Gladiator, in which the Roman emperor Commodus uses a thumbs-up to spare the life of the film's hero, Maximus.
Pollice Verso is also the title of a controversial 1904 drawing of the Crucifixion by Australian artist Norman Lindsay, depicting Christ being rejected by nude .
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