Senin, 20 Juni 2011

Don't you just hate getting bad calls by referees in sporting events? But even if you lost everything in Vegas on the out come of things like Rocky Versus Mr T, no one actually died because of a bad call...right?
Well, at least no one has died in the last 1700 years. Because 1800 years ago a gladiator in Ancient Rome died because of a bad call from a referee.
See according to Michael Carter who is some kind of a professor at a college in that place north of New York, a gladiators tombstone has finally been decoded. This tombstone had a weird and here to unknown epitaph scribbled on it. The message when translated said simply, "I called heads bitches! I won the coin toss, why did you give it to the other guy?"
Ok so that isn't an exact quote, It said something about "fate and treachery of a" referee "killed me".
See something I didn't know about gladiator fights is that there are rules. I mean other than kill each other. And each of the matches is overseen by a guy called a "summa rudis", or as we would call them a referee.
This guy could be corrupt and he was always playing to the rich onlookers in the crowds.
So, if a rich guy paid the ref off then their gladiator may win...sounds like American Football.
So one of these rules is if one of the fighters falls on his on...you know trips because he is a clumsy bastard...the ref has the right to let them get up take their shield and sword and start fighting again.
Think, a flag on the play and the teams get to replay that down with no penalty.
So the dead guy, whos name is Diodorus, was fighting against a guy named Demetrious...and Diodorus thought, he put Demetry on the ground legitimately...but the ref disagreed and Demetrious kicked Diodorus's ass.
Like how Tyson turned on Holyfield...I suspect that Demetrious bit Diodorus's ear off...
So, when he was buried...his family or friends or the people cheering...had the story of his death written onto his tombstone.
So, what we have is either the 1st proven account of cheating by umpires or the 1st proven sore loser...
For info on this story check out the following link http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20110620/sc_livescience/romangladiatorsgravestonedescribesfatalfoul

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