A long misquoted phrase? Or not?

Morituri te salutant! "Those who are about to die, salute you!"

I'm willing to bet that just about EVERYBODY has heard this phrase in English, always attributed to gladiators in the arena. But was it used regularly? Who actually said it? And what proof do we have that these words were once used?

A famous writer named Suetonius gives us the most information about this famous sentence. Suetonius is probably my favorite ancient writer, because his work is so easy to read. It doesn't come across as pompous, stuffy, or formal. In fact, I'd go as far as saying that he was probably the PEOPLE magazine of the Roman world. From him, we know such fascinating stuff like Augustus Caesar had big ears and wore elevator sandals!

Stop laughing! It's TRUE! Suetonius SAID so!

Anyway, Suetonius wrote an incredible work called De Vita Caesarum (The Lives of the Caesars). In it, he tells of an incident during the reign of the Emperor Claudius. Claudius was holding games, and chose as the venue an area around a now drained lake: Lake Fucinus. Apparently at the time, it was deep enough in which to place large naval vessels, so that a mock naval battle could take place between armed combatants. This type of entertainment was called "naumachia", and it had likely been done before in other venues. Eventually, once the Colosseum was built, naumachia were held there, as well. 

On the occasion of Claudius's naumachia, Suetonius reports that the prisoners who would fight were not gladiators, but condemned criminals. Right before they fought, they hailed Claudius by proclaiming, Ave Caesar morituri te salutant! "Hail Caesar, those who are about to die salute you!" 

So it's generally accepted by scholars that gladiators did NOT use these words at every fight as a salute. However, who can be completely sure? If it was used once, it could have been used more often.

​Never say never!

         The Roman Colosseum at night. Claudius couldn't use this venue, as it wouldn't be built for several decades yet.