Daily globe., 1882-09-18
ROMAN CRUELTY.
National Conservation of Hnhu-'
manity.

manity.
From the London Saturday Review.l
That at an advanced period of material
civilization spectacles whereof the one
grand interest consisted In the elaborate
and wholesale torture and carnage OF
men and animals should not only have
been tolerated with scarcely a protest
for centuries, but should have formed
the chief and indispensable amusement
of both sexes and all classes of the pop
ulation, including the highest-this
appears on first sight to modern think
ers a moral fact almost incredible in it's
atrocity. And so firm, moreover, was
their hold on popular sympathy that
they lasted long after the conversion of
the empire to Christianity. Constan-
tine, to be sure, issued an edict sup
pressing the gladiatoriai shows, but it
was suffered to remain a dead letter,
and 1t was not till nearly century later,
when the Asiatic monk Telemachus
leaped into the arena and separated the
combatants at the cost of his own life
he was stoned to death by the indignant
spectators-that these games we're finally
abolished. Something may be due to
the religious origin of the custom, which
is commonly alleged to have sprung out
of a rite of human sacrifice offered at the
tombs of great men, though some
scholars, like Mommsen, deny the ex-
istence of human sacrifice at Rome.
Later on motives of policy conspired to
sustain the practice, both as means of
keeping up the military spirit of the
people and as Offering the sole oppor-
tunity under a despot Emperor for the
thousands of citizens then assembled in
presence of their sovereign and his Min
lister to present petitions and make
known their grievances.
Still these explanations do not carry
us very far. Theatrical entertainments,
such as the Greeks delighted in, would
have answered the latter purpose quite
as well, but for appreciating such re-
fined amusements these CHASTITY orgies
of blood quite untitled the Roman pop
ulace And it is curious fact, noted
by distinguished modern writer, that,
Rs different kinds of vice, which might
appear TO have no mutual connection,
do yet act and react on one another. SO
here the intense craving after excite
ment engendered and gratifed by gla-
diatorial combats served to stimulate the
taste for such orgies of sensuality as de-
scribed by historians like Tacitus and
Suetonius. And hence was not only
Hercules burnt on the stage, not in eff
6gy but in the person of a condemned
criminal, but the deeds of gods and he
roes were represented, as Juvenal says,
to the life. Nor can it be questioned
and it is chiefly in order to illustrate
that. terrible lesson that we have re-
ferred to the subject here-that the gla-
diator shows betrayed not merely indif-
ference to human suffering, but that ca
pacity for real and keen pleasure in the
contemplation of suffering, as such,
which many are loath, for the credit of
human nature, to admit. Suetonius, for
instance, tells us that it was the special
delight of Claudius to watch the faces of
the expiring gladiators, as he had come
to take kind of artistic pleasure in OBJ
serving the variation in their agony.
Heliogabalus and Galerius used to re-
gale themselves while at the table with
the spectacle of animals devoured by
wild beasts; and Lactantius says of
Galerius "he never supped without hu-
man blood" And what is more horri-
BILE still beautiful eyes. trembling
with passion, locked down upon the
light; and the noblest ladies in Rome,
even the Empress herself, had been
known to crave the victor's love-" A
story told by st. Augustine exhibits the
ghastly fascination of the spectacle. A
Christian friend of his had somehow
been drawn into the amph1theater, which
Christians were strictly forbidden to en-
ter, and resolved to guard against the
temptation to sinful enjoyment by keep
ing his eyes closed; sudden cry led
him to look up, and he was unable to
withdraw his gaze again.
Ii 1t shocks us to find among highly
civilized people this national consecra-
ton of cruelty. it is perhaps more start
ling that with a few exceptions the
novelists and philosophers of the day
had not word to say against it. The
refined and gentle-hearted Cicero calmly
observes that some men think these
spectacles cruel and inhuman, but to
make this use of criminals is really to
present to the eye an excellent discipline
against suffering and death. Juvenals
dIISGOCIHtlC leSliuSSS were outraged at Cn6
Roman nobility condescending to act as
gladiators; but there is nothing to show
that the spectacle in itself offended him.
Seneca and Plutarch, as we pointed out
before, adopt very different tone, and
Marcus Aurelius ordered the gladiators
to fight with blunted swords, as he also
ordered that no rope-dancers should
perform without net or mattress be-
ing spread beneath them. But such
rare and honorable exceptions only help
to prove the rule. During the reign of
terror in France spirit very like that of
the worst period Of the Roman empire
-~ -,Ghed, anu u has been Observed
that in both cases the grossest in
humanity was sometimes found united
with affection for animals-that is, for
pet animals. Fournier was devoted to O
squirrel, Couthon to his spaniel, and
Marat kept doves. But it may we'll be
questioned whether these particular
affections indicate any general temper
OF mercy toward mankind. Even the
most bloodthirsty monster may have a
sincere partiality for his own belongings,
paramour, or friend, or child. It is not
clear that the Marshal de Retz, the
l.. .c&o r.