Seneca · On the proper time to slip the cable
Letters 70.23
Lately a gladiator, who had been sent forth to the morning exhibition, was being conveyed in a cart along with the other prisoners; nodding as if he were heavy with sleep, he let his head fall over so far that it was caught in the spokes; then he kept his body in position long enough to break his neck by the revolution of the wheel. So he made his escape by means of the very wagon which was carrying him to his punishment.
Seneca, Letters to Lucilius 70.23, translated by Richard Mott Gummere