Pollice verso or verso pollice is a Latin phrase literally meaning “with a thumb turn” [1] , “with a turned finger” [2] , which is used in the context of gladiatorial battles . This is the name of the gesture shown by the ancient Roman crowd and condemning the defeated gladiator to death.
The exact form of the gesture described by the phrase pollice verso, and its meaning are the subject of much scientific debate.
Content
Ancient Rome
The type of gesture described by the phrase pollice verso is unclear. From historical, archaeological and literary records it is not clear whether the thumb was up, down, or in a horizontal position, or was hidden inside the palm to indicate a positive or negative opinion [3] [4] [5] .
Juvenal writes in satire:
quondam hi cornicines et municipalis harenae
| These are the trumpeters, the regulars of different
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Mass Culture
In 1891, the novel “ Pollice verso ” was published by the Russian writer A. A. Tikhonov (Lugovoi) , which illustrates the psychology of an excited crowd [6] [7] .
The gesture of pollice verso was popularized in 1872 by the French artist-academician Jean-Leon Jerome in a painting called Pollice verso (usually translated as "Thumbs down"). This is a large canvas, depicting vestals , making it clear to the gladiator- murmillon that his opponent who fell in the arena should be killed. The painting was purchased from Jerome by the American tycoon Alexander Terney Stuart (1803-1876), who then exhibited it in New York. Now the canvas is in the Phoenix Museum of Art in Arizona.
The picture had a great influence on the creators of the film " Gladiator ". The producers showed director Ridley Scott a reproduction of the picture before he read the script. “This picture showed me the Roman Empire in all its glory and perversity. I immediately understood everything, it hooked me up great, ”commented Scott [8] .
Pollice Verso is also the name of the controversial drawing of the 1904 Australian artist Norman Lindsay, depicting the crucifixion of Jesus Christ [9] .
Notes
- ↑ Tsybulnik Yu. S. Winged Latin expressions. - M. :: Publishing house AST LLC, 2003. - P. 50-51. - 830 s. - 5,000 copies. - ISBN 5-17-016376-2 .
- ↑ Latin-Russian and Russian-Latin dictionary of winged words and phrases. - M .: Russian Language. N.T. Babichev, Y. M. Borovskoy. 1982. pp. 606-607
- ↑ James Grout: The Gladiator and the Thumb , part of the Encyclopædia Romana
- ↑ Desmond Morris, Peter Collett, Peter Marsh and Marie O'Shaughnessy, 1979 Webified by Bernd Wechner: Gestures: Their Origin and Meanings, The Thumb Up
- ↑ Did The Romans Turn Thumbs Down On Gladiators?
- ↑ Vengerov S.A. Tikhonov, Aleksei Alekseevich // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
- ↑ Autobiography of A. A. Tikhonov. “Herald of Europe”, 1909, III, VI, IX, XI — XII (“How My Faith Grew Up”).
- ↑ Phoenix Art Museum - Jean-Léon Gérôme: Pollice Verso
- ↑ National Gallery of Australia
Further reading
- Anthony Philip Corbeill - “Thumbs in Ancient Rome: pollex as Index” in Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome 42 (1997) pp. 61–81.
- Anthony Corbeill - Nature Embodied: Gesture in Ancient Rome ( Princeton University Press , 2004) 978-0-691-07494-8
- Desmond Morris - Gestures: Their Origin and Distribution (1979)
- “Top 10 Myths About the Romans” at listverse.com (May 5, 2008)
Links
- Pollice Verso , article by Edwin Post in American Journal of Philology , Vol. 13, No. 2 (1892), pp. 213–225, online at LacusCurtius
- "The Gladiator and the Thumb"
- Pollice Verso at Phoenix Art Museum