 By common custom, the spectators decided whether or not a losing gladiator should be spared, and chose the winner in the rare event of a standing tie.Even more rarely, perhaps uniquely, one stalemate ended in the killing of one gladiator by the "editor" himself.In any event, the final decision of death or life belonged to the "editor", who signalled his choice with a gesture described by Roman sources as "pollice verso" meaning "with a turned thumb"; a description too imprecise for reconstruction of the gesture or its symbolism.