Origines

The highlight followed in the afternoon with the gladiator fights which were opened with the pompa (entering the arena). The lictores (officials) marched up front, carrying their fasces (bundle of rods with an axe as symbol of their authority), followed by the musicians who also accompanied the fights with music. After that, stretchers with statues of deities (fercula) were brought into the arena; then the dignitaries came in, finally followed by the gladiators whose weapons were carried before them so that the audience could see them unobstructed. The gladiators greeted the Emperor or the editor, but never with the sentence "morituri te salutant". This is recorded to have been said by noxii (condemned) before Emperor Claudius. After that, the gladiators competed in pairs. Sometimes more than one pair could be in the arena at the same time. The pairings were drawn at the beginning of the event.

At smaller events all gladiators came from the same ludus (gladiator school), only at larger events gladiators from several schools would appear. Therefore, in most cases one had to fight his own comrade. Maybe this was one reason why the defeated gladiator kept his helmet on when he expected the coup de grâce from his opponent. Otherwise the winner might have had constraints to face his comrade. A duel could end in four different ways:

1. Death of one of the two combatants by a lethal wound received during the fight.

2. Surrender of one of the two fighters by putting down his shield and raising his left hand with stretched out index finger plus the editor's decision of death after the audience yelled "iugula" ("stab him"). The loser had to kneel down and offer his throat in order to receive the coup de grâce. Was he so badly wounded and hence too weak for this gesture, he was turned onto his belly. Then the winner stabbed him between the shoulder blades into the heart.