Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1882-07-17
Roman Cruelty.

lrIohi tile SATURDAY REVIEW.
The games of the Roman Colosseum.
which, according to Juvenal, had become as
much necessaries Of life to the people as
their daily bread, supplies of itself IL most
remarkable illustration of the particular
phase of human nature. That in an adyan-
ced period ofmaterial civilization spectacles
whereof the one grand interest consisted
III the elaborate and wholesale torture and
carnage OF men and animals shouldnot ONLY
have been tolerated with scarcely protest
for centuries, but should have formed the
chief and indispensable amusement of both
sexes and all classes of the population in
Guiding the highest-this appears at first
sight to modern thinkers moral fact almost
incredible IN its atrocty. And so firm,
moreover, was their hold on popular SYM
pathy that they lasted long after the con-
version ofthe empire to Christianity. Con-
stantine, to be sure, issued an edict suppress
sing the gladiatorial shows, but it was suf.
fered to remain Il dead letter, and it was
not until 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 were finally abolished. Something
may be due to the religious origin of the
custom, which is commonly alleged to have
sprung out ola rite Of human sacrifice Of
tered 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 Of.
terlnS the sole opportunity under despotic
Emperor for the thousands of citizens then
assembled in the presence Of their sovereign
and his Ministers to present petitions and
make known their grievances. Still these
atrical entertainments such as the Greeks
delighted in would have answered the lat
ter purpose quite as well, but for apprecia-
ting such refined amusements these CHASTITY
orgies of blood quite untitled the Roman
populace. And it is curious fact noted by
distinguished modern writer that, as diff
ferent kinds of vice which might appear to
have no mutual connection do yet act and
react OH one other, so here the intense cray
ing after excitement engendered and graft
fled by gladiatorial combats served to stimu-
late the taste for such orgies Of sensuality
as are described by historians like
Tacitus and Suetonius. And hence not
only WttS IleICIieS DuTHCQ Oh InG Stage,
not in ctfigy but in the person of q con-
demned criminal, but the deeds of gods
and heroes were represented, an Juvenal says, to
the life. Nor it be qucstioned-and it is chiefly
in order to illustrate that terrible lesson that we
have referred to the subject hcre-that the gladia
toral shows bcstrayed not merely Indifference to
human suffering, but that capacity for real and
keen pleasure in the contemplation of suffering as
such, which many are 10th 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 gladators, rs he
had come to take kind of artistic pleasure in OBJ
serving the variations of their agony Melioga-
baus and Galerius used to regale themselves
while ut table with the spectacle Of animals de-
vourcd by wild beasts, and Lactantius says of
Galcrius that she never supped without human
blood" And, what is more horrible still, ''bcau-
tiful eyes, trembling with passion, looked down
upon the fight, and the noblcst ladies in Rome,
even the Empress herself, had been known to
crave the victor's love-" A story told by St. Au-
gustine exhibits the CHASTITY fascination of the
spectacle. A Christian friend of his had somehow
hecn drawn into the amphithcatre, which Chris
tans were strictly forbidden to enter, and resolved
to guard against the temptation to sinful enjoy
ment by keeping his eyes closed sudden cry
led him to look up, and he was unable to with
draw his gaze again.