Origines

3. Surrender of one of the two gladiators who had fought so bravely that the audience would ask the editor for his missio (dismissal) by calling "mitte" or "missum".

4. 4. The fight ended in a draw, which was very rare. If the gladiators had shown a long and exciting fight and the audience was enthusiastic, the editor could ask the summa rudis (first umpire) to end the duel. These stanti missi (standing dismissals) were very honorable. They were valued higher than a victory against a weak opponent.

Some fights were carried out sine missione (without dismissal) where either case 1 or 2 had to occur. No matter how bravely the gladiators fought and how exhausted they might have been already, they had to fight until the bitter end. Since such fights were very costly - the editor had to pay a high fee to the lanista for each dead gladiator. These fights were probably quite rare.

Given these costs, only a few fights might actually have ended with the death of one of the two combatants - in contrast to the accepted belief that gladiator fights were merely a bloody spectacle. But the training of a gladiator was very expensive, thus no lanista would have liked to lose half of his fighters at an event. Moreover, the fights were no senseless butchery but obeyed strict rules which were observed by the summa rudis and the secunda rudis (first and second umpire). Furthermore, it was regulated what type of gladiator had to fight which opponent, so that there was always a balance between the combatants. For example the lightly armed but agile retiarius fought against the heavily armored and ponderous secutor.