tent with supplying the vases and all the apparatus of the theatre with silver, he caused the arena to be paved with silver plates; "so that," says Pliny, "wild beasts were for the first time seen walking and fighting upon this precious metal." This excessive expense on the part of Cæsar was only commensurate with his ambition. Preceding ediles had simply sought the consulate; Cæsar aspired to empire, and was resolved, therefore, to eclipse all his competitors. Pompey the Great, on dedicating his theatre, produced, besides a rhinoceros and other strange beasts from Ethiopia, 500 lions, 410 tigers, and a number of elephants, who were attacked by African men, the hunting being continued during five days. Cæsar, after the termination of the civil wars, divided his hunting-games into five days also; in the first of which the camelopard was shown; at last 500 men on foot, and 300 on horseback were made to fight, together with twenty elephants, and an equal number more with turrets on their backs, defended by sixty men. As to the number of gladiators, he surpassed every thing that had been seen before, having produced, when edile, as Plutarch tells us, no less than 320 couples of human combatants. CHAPTER VIII. Gladiatorial Games. "This is the bloodiest shame, We shall endeavour to give a succinct account of the professional gladiators, free from the elaborate display of erudition with which the subject has been too often encumbered. -At first their exhibition was limited to the funeral pomps of the consuls and chief magistrates of the republic; insensibly this privilege was extended to less distinguished individuals; private persons and even females stipulated for such combats in their wills; the instruction of gladiators became a regular art; they were trained, formed, and exercised under proper teachers, and at last they were converted into a sort of trade, individuals becoming masters and proprietors of bands of gladiators, with whom they travelled about the country, exhibiting them for money in the provincial towns, and at the local games. For the sake of diversity some fought in chariots, or on horseback, others contended with their eyes bandaged; some had no offensive weapons, being only provided with a buckler; others were armed from top to toe. Gladiators of one description were supplied with a sword, a poniard, and a cutlass; while a second sort had two swords, two poniards, and two cutlasses. Some only fought in the morning, others in the afternoon; each couple being distinguished by appropriate names, of which we shall give a list. 1. The gladiators called Secutores were armed with a sword, and a species of mace loaded with lead. 2. The Thraces carried a species of scimitar, like that used by the Thracians. 3. The Myrmillones were armed with a buckler, and a sort of scythe, and bore a fish upon the top of their helmets. The Romans had given them the nickname of Gauls. 4. The Retiarii carried a trident in one hand and a net in the other; they fought in a tunic and pursued the Myrmillo, crying out "I do not want you, Gaul, but your fish."-Non te peto, Galle, sed piscem peto. 5. The Hoplomachi, as their Greek name indicates, were armed cap-à-pie. 6. The Provocatores, adversaries of the Hoplomachi, were, like them, completely armed. 7. The Dimachari fought with a poniard in each hand. 8. The Essedarii always combated in chariots. 9. The Andabata fought on horseback, their eyes being closed, either by a bandage or by a visor which fell down over the face. 10. The Meridiani were thus named because they entered the arena towards noon; they fought with a sword against others of the same class. 11. The Bestiarii were professed gladiators or bravoes, who combated with wild beasts, to display their courage and address, like the modern bull-fighters of Spain. 12. The Fiscales, Cæsariani, or Postulati, were gladiators kept at the expense of the public treasury, as their first title imports. They took the name of Cæsariani because they were reserved for those games of which the emperors were spectators; and of Postulati because, as they were the bravest and most skilful of all the combatants, they were the most frequently called for by the people. The Catervarii were gladiators drawn from all the different classes to fight in troops, many against many. The Samnites, so called because they were dressed in the manner of that nation, were generally employed at feasts and entertainments, to display their skill and agility in mock engagements, and did not use murderous weapons. From this appalling list it will be seen that no circumstance was neglected that could add to the horror of the combats, and gratify the cold-blooded cruelty of the spectators by every possible refinement in barbarity. Not only was art exhausted, and every incentive applied to perfect the skill and animate the courage of the unhappy victims, so that they might die becomingly; but the utmost ingenuity was employed in varying and rendering more terrible the murderous weapons with which they were to butcher one another. It was not by chance that a Thracian gladiator was opposed to a Secutor, or that a Ketiarius was armed in one way and the Myrmillo in another; they were purposely combined in a manner most likely to protract the fight, and make it more sanguinary. By varying the arms it was proposed to diversify the mode of their death; they were fed upon barley cakes and other fattening aliments, in order that the blood might flow slowly from their wounds, and that the spectators might enjoy as long as possible the sight of their dying agonies. Let it not be imagined that these spectators were the refuse of the people; the most distinguished orders of the state delighted in these cruel amusements, even the Vestal virgins being placed with great ceremony in the front row of the amphitheatre. It is amusing to read the poetical description which Prudentius has drawn of that vestal modesty which, while it covered their face with blushes, found a secret delight in the hideous conflicts of the arena ;-of those downcast looks that were greedy of wounds and death of those sensitive souls who fainted away at the H sight of blood and blows, yet always recovered when the knife was about to be plunged into the throat of the sufferer; -of the compassion of those timid virgins who themselves gave the fatal signal that decided the death of the bloodstreaming gladiator : That some pleasure might be derived by a warlike people from contemplating the skill and courage of the combatants, especially where they could reward the display of those qualities by giving the parties their liberty, we can easily understand; but to cut off even this poor solitary excuse,― to furnish blinded men with weapons, and then set them on to butcher one another in the dark, was an act of ruthless atrocity that could only have originated in a brutal appetite for blood. Cicero approved of gladiatorial exhibitions, so long as none but criminals were the combatants. Pliny the younger was of opinion that such kind of shows were proper to inspire fortitude, and make men despise wounds and death, by showing that even the lowest rank of mankind were ambitious of victory and praise; but surely the spectacle of blind combatants could confirm nothing but the cowardice and inhumanity from which it sprang; nor can men be familiarized to the sight of violence and blood, without being tempted to imitate that which they see a whole people applaud. The masters and teachers of the gladiators were termed Lanista, to whom were committed the prisoners, criminals, and guilty slaves, that they might be instructed in their horrible art, and fitted for public slaughter. Freemen, however, sometimes voluntarily hired themselves to the service of the arena, the master making them previously swear that they would fight even to death. Application being made to these Laniste when gladiatorial shows were desired, they furnished for a stated price the number of pairs, and of the different classes that might be wanted. Some of the leading persons of the state, and among others Julius Cæsar, kept gladiators of their own, as a part of their regular establishments. The Emperor Claudius wished to limit the number of these cruel spectacles, but the popular appetite for blood had now been confirmed by long indulgence, and he was soon after obliged to annul his own ordinance. Some time before the day of engagement, the president of the games announced by handbills, or occasionally by a picture of the intended engagement, exposed in some public place, the number and quality of the gladiators, as well as their names and the marks by which they were distinguished-for each assumed a particular badge, such as the feathers of the peacock, or some other bird. On the morning of the spectacle they began by fencing and skirmishing, as a sort of prelude, with wooden foils and staves, after which they armed themselves with real weapons of all sorts, and proceeded to action. The first blood drawn produced a cry of "He is wounded;" and if at the same time the wounded party lowered his arms, it was considered as an acknowledgment of his defeat. His life, however, depended on the spectators, or on the president of the games; but if at this moment the emperor happened to arrive, the gladiator was spared as an act of grace, sometimes unconditionally, sometimes with the understanding that if he should recover from his wounds, he was not to be exempted from future combats. In the ordinary course of things, it was the people who decided upon the life and death of the wounded combatant; if he had conducted himself with skill and courage, his pardon was almost always granted; but if he had betrayed any cowardice in the engagement, his death-warrant was generally pronounced. In the former case, the people displayed the hand with the thumb doubled under the fingers; in the latter they extended the hand with the thumb raised, and pointed towards the bleeding wretch, who so well understood the fatal nature of this signal, that he was accustomed as soon as he perceived it to present his throat to the adversary, in order to receive the mortal thrust. Every gladiator who had served three years in the arena was entitled to his dismissal; a privilege sometimes granted to him by the people, upon any extraordinary display of valour and address, even although he had not served the stipulated period. The reward of a victorious gladiator was a palm, and a sum of money, sometimes of considerable amount. To obtain absolute freedom, they must have |