Among the various findings on display at the Colosseum Museum, visitors can admire several fragmentary pieces of the seating section’s marble cladding (steps and slabs) on which spectators carved images of the games and their participants over the centuries. This graffiti shows hunting scenes and gladiators locked in combat: sometimes, the games’ participants are singled out and, if they were particularly famous or admired by the public, they might even be identified by name or accompanied by words of encouragement.

This slab, in cipollino marble, depicts a retiarius, the unhelmeted class of gladiator armed with net and trident (the shaft of which is visible in his left hand). He wears a necklace with a medal (the gladiator’s torque) and is represented victorious: in his right hand he holds a palm frond, symbol of victory. Above the gladiator, to the right, the letters [-]TER are legible, interpreted as the last letters in the cheer (FELICI)TER, “hurray”.

He must have been an excellent fighter to be immortalized by an anonymous spectator (in a sort of ancient snapshot), and yet we cannot help but notice the look of resignation on his face, lost in thoughts of the numerous battles fought and overcome.