 Whether these victims were gladiators or "noxii" is unknown.Modern pathological examination confirms the probably fatal use of a mallet on some, but not all the gladiator skulls found in a gladiators' cemetery.Kyle (1998) proposes that gladiators who disgraced themselves might have been subjected to the same indignities as "noxii", denied the relative mercies of a quick death and dragged from the arena as carrion.