Since my own Latin stops at "ave", I was surprised when a dictionary listing of famous non-English phrases rendered it "men doomed to die."

No, it has to be "those" rather than "men". Female gladiators, after all, were not uncommon. Apart from that the translation of MORITVRITESALVTANT you have found is probably as valid as any other, since there was no exact Latin equivalent of the word "doomed".

However, it doesn't mean "condemned" as in "the condemned criminal". There was a noun, not based on mori, judicio or damno, which was used for this. But (sob) I can't remember what it was.

However, someone (Seneca, I think), said "Gladiator in arena consilium capit." Roughly translated, it means "Think before it's too late." Literally, it means "The gladiator is making plans in the arena." Shortly, I presume, after he or she had already done the "Morituri te salutant" thing.

As I said, a mordant lot, the Romans.



The idiot also known as Capfka ...