Tridents (was Re: FreeBSD Version Release numbers)

[Viktor Lazlo]

On Fri, 13 Jun 2003, Mark Murray wrote:

> Paul Robinson writes:
> > Hate to get into a bitch-slapping fight here, but Terry is right. The modern
> > thing with thumbs-up meaning "good" doesn't translate directly to the Roman
> > era. It's well established in historian circles, pretty much every Roman
> > historian who is considered credible etc., all agree - thumbs up meant
> > death, and thumbs down meant mercy.
>
> I guess my Latin teacher was wrong, then :-)

What I remember from Latin was that there was no explicit recorded
evidence of which gesture meant what but that based on studies of frescos
and other contemporary art of the classical Roman period scholars had
concluded the emperors used thumbs up to instruct the gladiator to finish
off his opponent.

The following link says much the same:

http://www.ur.ku.edu/News/97N/SepNews/Sept29/thumbs.html

Cheers,

Viktor