 Modern customs and institutions offer few useful parallels to the legal and social context of the "gladiatoria munera".In Roman law, anyone condemned to the arena or the gladiator schools ("damnati ad ludum") was a "servus poenae" (slave of the penalty), and was considered to be under sentence of death unless manumitted.A rescript of Hadrian reminded magistrates that "those sentenced to the sword" (execution) should be despatched immediately "or at least within the year", and those sentenced to the "ludi" should not be discharged before five years, or three years if granted manumission.