Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 6.djvu/342

 3 o8

��THE GRANITE MONTHLY.

��Pilgrimage. Again, to my astonish- ment, I read as follows : " When one gladiator wounded another he shouted ' Hoc habet,' or ' Habet ' — ' He has it ' — the wounded combatant dropped his weapon, and, advancing to the edge of the arena, supplicated the spec- tators to spare his life. If he had fought well, the people saved him ; if otherwise, they turned down their thumbs and he was slain."

Baffled a second time, I referred to the well known " Manual of Roman Antiquity," by William Ramsay, a. m., of Trinity College, Cambridge, profes- sor of Humanity in the University of Glasgow, and was for the third time astonished to read as follows, at page 179 : " As soon as a gladiator inflicted a decided wound on his adversary he exclaimed, ' Hoc habet.' If the in- jury was one which disabled his oppo- nent, the editor replied, 'Habet.' The wounded man now held up his finger in token of submission. The presi- dent, as a matter of courtesy, referred to the audience ; and if the man was a favorite, and had fought well, the crowd testified their approbation and he was allowed to retire ; but if not, they depressed their thumbs in silence, and the conqueror, in obedience to a look from the editor, plunged his weapon into the body of the unresist- ing victim."

Vexed at the discouraging results of my researches, I took up, as a fourth venture, the latest " Manual of Roman Antiquities," written by that able scholar, A. S. Wilkins, of Owens Col- lege, Manchester, and once more, to my astonishment, read as follows, at page 105: "When a gladiator was disarmed, or wounded, his fate was in the hands of the spectators. If he had fought well and bravely, they sig- nified their approval, by applause and by waving of handkerchiefs, that he be spared ; but if they were in a cruel mood, or, if he had failed to please them, they pointed downward with their thumbs, in silence, and he re- ceived the finishing blow."

��Most people would imagine that by this time I ought to have been con- vinced of my error. Far, however, from this being the case, I was merely very much surprised. How could these four writers, apparently uncon- nected, namely, the author of the cyclo- pedia's article, Sir J. Cam Hobhouse, Prof. Ramsay, and Prof. Wilkins. in addition to Gerome, the French paint- er, have all gone astray ? From what common source could they have re- ceived their erroneous information? This is an enigma I have not yet solved ; but for a solution of which I shall be obliged to any polite reader of the Monthly. Remembering a locus dassicus in Pliny (Book 28, chapter 5), which seemed to settle the question — Pollicem cumfaveamns pre- mere ctiam proverb io jubemar — I re- ferred for " more light" to the Natural History of Pliny, translated by Jno. Bostock, M. D., and H. T. Riley (Bonn's edition), and at page 284 of Vol. V, in a note on the passage above quoted, I was for the fifth time aston- ished to read as follows : were turned upward as vor ; downward, as a favor."

I began to think that I was bewitch- ed, and that all the writers on Roman Antiquity had mysteriously conspired against me. As soon, however, as I had the opportunity I turned in des- pair for consolation, though with an uncanny feeling that consolation might possibly be denied me, to Dr. Smith's famous Dictionary of Greek and Ro- man Antiquities, and for the first time, during my wild-goose chase, I found the following paragraph on Gladia- tors : "When a gladiator was wounded the people called out ' Habet,' or ' Hoc habet,' and the one who was wounded lowered his arms in token of submis- sion. His fate, however, depended upon the people, who pressed down their thumbs if they wished him spared ; but turned them up if they wished him to be killed." xAnxiousto discover whether other cyclopedias agreed with Chambers's, I then con-

��" The thumbs a mark of fa- mark of dis-

�� �