from the humiliating ceremony of preceding on foot the Imperial chariot, was treated with the decent reverence which Stilicho always affected for that assembly. The people was repeatedly gratified by the attention and courtesy of Honorius in the public games, which were celebrated on that occasion with a mag- nificence not unworthy of the spectator. As soon as the ap- pointed number of chariot races was concluded, the decoration of the Circus was suddenly changed ; the hunting of wild beasts afforded a various and splendid entertainment ; and the chase was succeeded by a military dance, which seems in the lively description of Claudian to present the image of a modern tournament.
The giadiators abolished
In these games of Honorius, the inhuman combats of gladiators[1] polluted, for the last time, the amphitheatre of Rome.
The first Christian emperor may claim the honour of the first
edict which condemned the art and amusement of shedding
human blood;[2] but this benevolent law expressed the wishes of
the prince, without reforming an inveterate abuse, which de-
graded a civilised nation below the condition of savage cannibals.
Several hundred, perhaps several thousand, victims were annu-
ally slaughtered in the great cities of the empire ; and the
month of December, more peculiarly devoted to the combats of
gladiators, still exhibited to the eyes of the Roman people a
grateful spectacle of blood and cruelty. Amidst the general
joy of the victory of Pollentia, a Christian poet exhorted the
emperor to extirpate by his authority the horrid custom which
had so long resisted the voice of humanity and religion.[3] The
pathetic representations of Prudentius were less effectual than
the generous boldness of Telemachus, an Asiatic monk, whose
death was more useful to mankind than his life.[4] The Romans
were provoked by the interruption of their pleasures ; and the
rash monk, who had descended into the arena to separate the
gladiators, was overwhelmed under a shower of stones. But the
- ↑ On the curious, though horrid, subject of the gladiators, consult the two books of the Saturnalia of Lipsius, who, as an antiquarian, is inclined to excuse the practice of antiquity (tom. iii. p. 483-545).
- ↑ Cod. Theodos. 1. xv. tit. xii. leg. i. The commentary of Godefroy affords large materials (torn. v. p. 396) for the history of gladiators.
- ↑ See the peroration of Prudentius (in Symmach. 1. ii. 1121-1131), who had doubtless read the eloquent invective of Lactantius (Divin. Institut. 1. vi. c. 20). The Christian apologists have not spared these bloody games, which were in- troduced in the religious festivals of Paganism.
- ↑ Theodoret, 1. v. c. 26. I wish to believe the story of St. Telemachus. Yet no church has been dedicated, no altar has been erected, to the only monk who died a martyr in the cause of humanity. [There is evidence for gladiatorial spectacles some years later.]
