After a ruthless battle against their opponent,a long, curved piece of metal (much like a blunt sickle) called a strigil, squeegeed the gladiator’s sweat which was then bottled and sold to fan in the audience.
If it wasn’t used as an aphrodisiac, it was used for medicinal purposes that supposedly helped with ailments such as epilepsy. Regardless of the effects, these people were still imbibing perspiration. If that wasn’t gag-inducing enough, some believed that eating the liver of a dead gladiator also helped with epilepsy (which we guess was a big problem back then?), a practice that originated from Etruscan (province north of Rome, AKA Tuscany) funeral rites. Although it was influenced religiously, the practice fell out of fashion with the rise of the Roman Republic.
