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Roman gladiator's death 'down to dodgy ref's decision'

They missed Diego Maradona’s “hand of God” and prompted John McEnroe’s notorious “you cannot be serious” outburst, yet rarely, if ever, has a referee been blamed for someone’s death.

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Ancient epitaph points blame for Roman gladiator's death at refereeing decision
Gladiator, starring Russell Crowe. Credit: Photo: AP

But now a study into Roman tombstones has shown that, at least in the world of ancient gladiatorial combat, a dodgy umpiring decision could once have had drastic consequences.

The epitaph on a previously little known memorial appears to blame the death of Diodorus, a gladiator killed 1,800 years ago, on a referee’s bad call.

An inscription on his tombstone lashes out at the “cunning treachery” of an umpire.

The tombstone, unearthed in Turkey a century ago and donated to the Cinquantenaire museum in Brussels, shows an image of a gladiator holding what look like two swords.

His disarmed opponent sprawls on the ground next to him, seemingly begging for mercy.

"After breaking my opponent Demetrius I did not kill him immediately," the inscription reads.

"Fate and the cunning treachery of the summa rudis killed me."

The term summa rudis can be understood to refer to a more senior gladiator called upon to referee matches.

Prof Michael Carter, of Brock University in St Catharines, Canada, said the epitaph gave a unique insight into the circumstances of a gladiator’s death.

Diodorus, who came from Amisus on the Black Sea coast of Turkey, is depicted on the brink of victory.

But the inscripton suggests that Demetrius was allowed to get up and ultimately go on to win the fight.

Rules which appear to have been in place at the time allowed gladiators who fell over by accident to get back up and carry on, explained Prof Carter.

"Demetrius signals surrender, Diodorus doesn't kill him; he backs off expecting that he's going to win the fight," he said.

"What the summa rudis has obviously done is stepped in, stopped the fight, allowed Demetrius to get back up again, take back his shield, take back his sword, and then resume the fight."

Whether Demetrius had simply fallen over or the summa rudis had some other motivation is not clear from the inscription.

Prof Carter’s study is published in the journal Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik (Journal for Papyrology and Ancient Epigraphics).