at the funeral games, a practice which led the way to the subsequent introduction of regular gladiators, exhibited, not to appease the dead, but to amuse the living. Whether or not the Romans derived these cruel games from the ancient Etrurians, as some have maintained, they eagerly seized every opportunity for their exhibition, even upon occasions when such hideous spectacles would have been peculiarly repugnant to the feelings of any other people upon earth. "The gladiatory shows," says an old historian,* "were exhibited by the Romans, not only at their public meetings, and on their theatres, but they used them at their feasts also."-The first public spectacle of the sort has been assigned to the Varronian year, 490, when the two Bruti caused three couples of gladiators to combat together in the ox-market, in honour of their deceased father; from which period the multitude became so passionately attached to the sport, that the magistrates, and others who were desirous of advancement in the state, began to have them celebrated at their own charge, often promising them beforehand as donatives for their election. In the earliest times these combats generally took place before the sepulchres; latterly they were celebrated in the squares or open places of the cities, in the surrounding porticoes of which the intercolumniations were purposely made larger, that the view of the spectators might be the less obstructed. In the time of Polybius, towards the sixth age of Rome, the gladiatory employment was reduced to a regular art, admitting great variety of arms and combatants, as well as different modes of engaging. Combats of wild beasts were first exhibited in the 568th year of Rome, when Marcus Fulvius treated the people with a hunting of lions and panthers: but as luxury and riches increased, and the conquest of Africa and the East facilitated the supply of exotic animals, it soon became a contest with the ediles and others who should evince the greatest magnificence in the Circensian games, and construct the most sumptuous amphitheatres for their display. Cæsar, however, surpassed all his predecessors in the funeral shows which he celebrated in memory of his father; for, not con * Nicholaus Damascenus. Others, however, maintain, that upon the latter occasions the weapons were guarded, and the fights simulated, not real. 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, Shakspeare. 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 Retiarius 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 : -Pectusque jacentis Virgo modesta jubet, converso pollice, rumpi, 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 Lanista 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 |