The medallion has been studied by American historian Anthony Corbeill and he believes it shows a games official signalling pollicēs premere, the granting of mercy to fighters whose combat ends in a draw.

[1] Originally intended as a decorative attachment for the front of a vase,[2] it was found reused as a cover on a cremation urn in Cavillargues, in the Gard department of southern France, sometime in the first half of the 19th century.

[5] The medallion has been studied by American historian Anthony Corbeill, who has a particular interest in the Roman gestures, including those associated with gladiatorial combats.

[9] Corbeill has written on the role of gesture in Roman society and believes the medallion shows the pollices premere, the hand signal that mercy was to be granted.

[10][11] Corbeill holds that the figure between the two fighters is an umpire and that he looks for the signal to end the fight, given by a person positioned off the scene to the left.

[12] Corbeill considers that the medallion shows that officials (specifically the games' producer, the ēditor) made the decision on whether to grant mercy not the victorious gladiator who seeks approval from the crowd, as is often depicted in popular culture such as the late 19th-century Jean-Léon Gérôme painting Pollice Verso.

[5] French historian Héron de Villefosse considered the vertical line at the right of the medallion to be a baton held by the official on the right.