18 Sjef van Tilborg a role in the days-long gladiatorial games in which also the damnati are ‘cleared away’ — they who have been condemned to death and who sit in prison until a good occasion comes up to execute them in public. The ten days for which the feast lasts are for this reason a qli'yi", the real possibility to be killed: be faithful unto death. Then you shall receive the ‘crown of life’. Opposite death stands life. The crown at issue here is not ‘the crown’ that people receive in a competition — as victors in games — as is often said in commentaries (54), but, parallel to other motifs from the gladiators’ world, the crown which a gladiator gets, if he wins, i.e. stays alive. A gladiator gets a crown on the occasion of a special victory. It is an extraordinary honor and on a number of gravestones this is also reported with pride: see, for example, the depiction of 12 crowns, on the gravestone of the primuspalus Dionysios in Philadelphia (55); the epigram of Stephanos in Hierapolis who says about himself that he is dekaton stefqeiv " (56); the 8 crowns on the gravestone of the gladiator v Stephanos in Philadelphia (57); the 6 crowns on a gravestone in Hierapolis (58); and the 5 crowns on a gravestone of the gladiator in Pergamum (59): the crown of life is the crown which guarantees life. c) Being slaughtered and the victory In a pair of curious places the author of the Apocalypse uses the word sfavzomai (in the passive sense) in combination with the word nikaw, namely with the Lamb, with the souls under the altar and with v the beast out of the sea. It is said about the Lamb that it is wJ" ejsfagmevnon (5,6); tov esfagmenon (5,12; 13,8) or o}ti ejsfavgh" (5,9). From the context it is j v shown that with this addition the Lamb is described as an animal that was sacrificed. In itself it is outside the context of the gladiatorial games. Still this is not absent, because a couple of times there is also a combination made with ‘triumphing’: in 5,5 (in connection with 5,6): “Lo, the Lion of the tribe of Judah has triumphed” (ejnivkhsen) and in 17,14: “they will make war on the Lamb, and the Lamb will conquer (nikhvsei) them, for he is Lord of lords and King of kings”. Being (54) See ALLO, 25-27; CHARLES, 58; SWETE, 33; HEMER, 70-76; AUNE, 166- 167; MOUNCE, 76. (55) ROBERT, 145. (56) Altertümer von Hierapolis, 205; ROBERT, 124. (57) ROBERT, 141 (58) SEG 1996 nr 1668. (59) ROBERT, 261