Talk:Pollice verso

It's demonstrated that this symbol is not corroborated by any document (pictures, writings...). So this picture helps broadcasting this myth about gladiators. There is, too, a theory that says that the thumb down indicates exactly the opposite, that the man needs to keep on live.

I saw something about this on the History Channel. Thumbs up meant "run him through" & thumbs down meant "throw down your swords." —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.17.134.7 (talk) 09:07, 5 May 2011 (UTC)
 * There's many sites that support this, with quotes from antiquity even. Here's one: http://wordinfo.info/unit/3735/ip:1/il:K —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.17.134.7 (talk) 09:11, 5 May 2011 (UTC)

Here is another from 1932 that already assumes the popular notion of 'thumbs up' to be incorrect: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Punch_Free_Trade.jpg 69.207.128.243 (talk) 17:09, 10 July 2011 (UTC)

Wow, This Whole Thing Needs Fixing
This article (as of August 2010) is WORTHLESS. The writing style is rather childish and there are no citations for anything. It all seems to spill out of the unsophisticated mind of the author. I don't feel I can trust anything in this article. Maybe there are truthful statements here (maybe it's all true) but there is too much missing and the quality is too poor for me to believe any of it. Gingermint (talk) 01:15, 8 August 2010 (UTC)

Juvenal Satire III
The article mentions Juvenal's Satire III. While it does use "verso pollice" and thus should be included in the article, it doesn't say anything about which direction of the thumb indicates which result.--Mrcolj (talk) 21:04, 18 August 2010 (UTC)

Pliny and "Pollice Presso"
Apparently Pliny's use of Pollice Presso, if it can be established as the opposite of Pollice Verso, is a huge hint. No time to do it myself.--Mrcolj (talk) 21:19, 18 August 2010 (UTC)

Implied question
Even if we assume that thumbs up meant "yes" and thumbs down meant "no" then as they would today, there is still the issue of what the implied question was. Is the victorious gladiator asking "Shall I allow my defeated opponent to live?" or "Shall I kill my defeated opponent?"? JRSpriggs (talk) 09:31, 2 January 2013 (UTC)

To add to article
To add to this article: more detail about the findings of scholar Anthony Corbeill about this subject, such as is discussed in the current version of the Thumb signal article. 173.88.246.138 (talk) 06:50, 5 January 2022 (UTC)