Gladiator battles were to Rome what football is to the United States (and soccer to the rest of the world). Successful gladiators could attract huge fan followings and achieved a certain celebrity status, as athletes do today. If a gladiator was successful long enough, he was usually given his freedom and allowed to go into retirement, resting upon his laurels. So rabid were the Romans about their gladiator fights and loyal to their home teams that, like the example of Vancouver recently, riots could break out if things did not go their way. At a game in Pompeii once, taunting turned to stone-throwing between the Pompeians and the visiting Nucerians, resulting in deaths and injuries during the subsequent riot. It was so bad that Emperor Nero banned gladiator games for Pompeii for ten years (after the ban they would get to enjoy it for another ten years before Vesuvius ended gladiator games in Pompeii permanently). Graffiti and higher-quality wall painting boast of Pompeii's victory over Nuceria Alfaterna, despite the ban.