A tunica molesta (Latin for "annoying shirt") was a tunic impregnated with pitch and other flammable substances such as naphtha or resin.
[12] In Rome, these spectacles, called munera, might have included plays and chariot races as well as combat sports.
[14] Capital punishments usually took place during the gladiator games in the Amphitheatre, at lunchtime, when all forms of public executions, including death by crematio, were carried out.
[15] Dramas that contained conflict between good and evil were seen as morally uplifting, and public executions of convicted criminals were believed to doubly improve virtue by providing a real life deterrent.
[17] It was used to induce testimony from slaves, in the arena to provoke men and beasts who were reluctant to fight, and to confirm death.
[17] Tertullian wrote: "we are called 'faggot-fellows' and 'half-axle men' because we are tied to a half-axle post and faggots are piled around us, and we are burnt".
[2]: 17 Thomas Wiedemann has written that, "An epigram in the Book of Spectacles refers to someone 'in matutina arena' playing the role 'Mucius Scaevola', the Roman hero who proved his bravery in the presence of the Etruscan king Lars Porsena [circa 500 BC] by thrusting his right hand into the flame; this is said to have been an alternative to the tunica molesta.