51�Թ�

Two textual descriptions of a gladiatorial battle, from the poets Juvenal and Prudentius, both reference the pollice verso or pollice converso, the "turned" thumb, as the signal for death.

The preachers and writers of the Church denounced them with the most unqualified vehemence, and the poet Prudentius made a direct and earnest appeal to the emperor to suppress them.

Besides the works already mentioned, he was the author of several theological tracts; of the De villa Noviliaco, concerning the claiming of a domain of his church; and he continued from 861 the Annales Bertiniani, of which the first part was written by Prudentius, bishop of Troyes, the best source for the history of Charles the Bald.

On the other side of the road from S. Lorenzo is the Catacomb of St. Hippolytus, interesting as described by the Christian poet Prudentius, who wrote at the end of the fourth century.

His story is told with horrible detail by Prudentius.