Lay Down Your Sword? Some historians believe that thumbs down meant that the victor should put down his sword and spare the defeated gladiator.

An important entertainment center was the Colosseum that could seat 45,000 spectators.

Spare That Gladiator! When the crowd wanted to spare a gladiator's life, classics professor Corbeill believes, its members closed their fists and pressed the thumb down on the index finger.

Then What's Thumbs-Up? Anthropologist Desmond Morris believes it arrived in Europe during World War II, along with American GIs.

And While We're At It... The proper name of the Colosseum is not the Colosseum. It is the Flavian Ampitheatre.

Furthermore... Nero never turned "thumbs down" or thumbs-anything on anyone in the Colosseum. Though he planned its construction ~ as part of a never-completed larger and more lavish palace complex ~ he died before it was opened in 80 AD.