Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-4830106-20151026041312/@comment-10380701-20151028044120

Phantomlink959 wrote:

False, thumb out in any direction means kill. thumb tucked in is spare.

To elaborate, those arenas were pretty huge, and a hand is pretty small, so they had to be distinctive so as to be told apart at long distance. The thumb stuck out represents the sword, regardless of direction, and means the person dies. the thumb in means the sword is kept sheathed and they may live. So basically, almost every gladiatorial fight recreations were full of shit.