Thumbs up!
So we were discussing Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down after the game today, and I said I read somewhere that thumbs up in Ancient Rome actually meant to KILL the vanquished gladiator, not spare him. Of course, nobody really believed me :roll:. Well the all-knowing Wikipedia seems to confirm it ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thumbs_up ): The source of the gesture is obscure. Though a favorite of Hollywood 'swords and sandals' epics, where the "thumbs down" symbol means that the loser in a gladiatorial combat should be put to death, recent research suggests the meanings of the symbols have changed over the years. In 1997, Professor Anthony Philip Corbeill of the University of Kansas concluded that the thumbs up actually meant "Kill him," basing his assertion on a study of hundreds of ancient artworks. Thus, the "thumbs up" was an approval of the gladiator's request to kill his vanquished foe rather than a vote to allow the defeated to remain alive. Corbeill wrote that a closed fist with a wraparound thumb was the indication for a gladiator's life to be spared. Pollice Verso by Jean-Léon Gérôme, 1872 is the immediate source of the "thumbs down" gesture in popular culture.In Latin, the "thumbs up" gesture is called pollice recto, "thumbs down" is pollice verso. It is not certain that the contemporary gestures are identical to the gestures performed in ancient Rome. The current version was popularized by a widely reproduced academic painting by the 19th century artist Jean-Léon Gérôme, whose Pollice Verso depicts a triumphant gladiator standing over a fallen foe, looking up into the stands for the verdict of the crowd. Not entirely conclusive, but the guy studied hundreds of ancient artworks so I think he knows what he's talking about. See, pretty much any dispute can be solved by Wikipedia. I don't know what I'd do without it. Ancient Rome is pretty fun, too, here's a cool picture (mentioned in the wikipedia article, and depicting the innacurate portrayal of the thumbs down meaning kill him, and which is where the idea that thumbs up meant live came from apparently): Wikipedia also mentions that in the middle east, the Thumbs Up gesture means (approximately) "Up yours." Goddamn middle east.