Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1882-07-07
lKsIIG'ES az CEaE ANCIENT RG-
MANS.


That in an advanced period of material
civilization spectaccs whereof the one
grand interest consisted in the elaborate
and wholesale torture and carnage of man
and animals should not only have been
tolerated with scarcely a protest for cen
turics, but should have formed the chief
and Indispensable amusement of both
sexes and all classes of the population ill.,
cl,lding the highcst-this appears ut first
sight to modern thinkers moral fact al
most incredible in its atrocity. And SO
firm, moreover, was their hold on popular
sympathy that they lasted long after the
conversion Of the emperor to Christianity.
Constantine, to be sure, issued an edict
suppressing the gladiatorial shows, but
it was suffered to remain dead letter,
and it was not till nearly century later,
when the Asiatic monk Telemachus
leaped into the arena and separated the
comtatal.Us ut the cost of his oHn 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 of
right of human sacrifice offered at the
tombs of great men, though some scholars,
like Mommsen, deny the existence of hui
man sacrifice at Rome. Later on motives
of policy conspired to sustain the prac-
tice, both as q means of keeping up the
military of the people and as offering ,the
sole opportunity under II despotic en-
peror for the thousands of citizens then
nsseWbled III presence of their sovereign
and his ministers 10 present petitions and
make known their grievances
Still these explanations do NOT carry us
very far, Theatrical entertainments such
as the Greeks delighted il would have
answered the latter purpose at leust quite
as well, but Tor appreclatln% such refined
nmusements these ghas, Y orgies of blood
quite untitled the Ro' an populaCe. And
1t Is curious fact, noted by listin-
gulshed modern writer, that us different
Kinds Of wee which might appear to have
'-rfit4 mutual connection do yet act and react
on oiHts>another, so here the intense cray
ing afteI>, excitement cngendered and
pratified by pladiatorial combats served
10 stimulate the taste for such orgies of
sensuality as are described hy historians
like Tacitus and Suetonius. And hence
not only was Hercules burnt on the stage,
not in eilgy but IN the person of con
,lemned criminal, but the deeds OF
gods and heroes We're represented, as
Juvelai says, to the life. Nor can it be
Questioned-and it is chiefly in order tc
illustrate that terrible lesson that We
have referred to the subject hcre-thai
the gladiatoral shows betrayed moi
merely indifference to human suffering,
but that capacity for a real and keen
pleasure III the contemplation of suffer
ing, as such, which many are loath foi
the credit Of human nature to admit
Snetonius, Gor instance, tells us that il
was the special delight of Claudius tc
watch the faces of the expiring gladiators
as he had come to take n kind of artistic
pleasure in observing the variations il
their agony. IIeliogabalus and Galeriu.
used to regale themselves while at table
with the spectacle of animals devoured by
wild beasts and Lactnntius says of Ga
lerins that she never supped without
human blood" And, what is more hor
rible still, "beautiful eyes, trembling
with passion, looked down upon the fight
and the noblest ladies' in Rome, even til,
Empress herself, had been known to cray,
the ,ictor's love" A story told by st
Augustine exhibits the ghastly fascina
ton of the spectacle. A Christian frien,
OF his had somehow been drawn into tn,
amphitheatre, which Christians wer,
strictly forbidden to enter and resolve,
to guard against the temptation to sinfu
enjoyment by keeping his his eyes closed
studded cry led him to look up, an,
he was unable to withdraw his gaz
again.
If it shocks us to fiud among highl,
civilized people this national consecratiol
of cruelty, it is more startling still t.
learn that with few exceptions the nov
elists and philosophers Of the day ha'
not n word to say against it. The re
fined and gentle-hearted Cicero calml
observes that some men think thes
spectacl7 cruel and inhuman, but that +
make this use of criminals is really t
present to the eye an excellent disciplin
against suffering anC death. Juvenal'
aristocratic feelings were outraged at til
Roman nobility condescending to act a
gladiators but there is nothing to sho'
that the spectacle in itself offended him
Seneca and Plutarch, as we pointed on
before, adoptA. cry different tone, an
Marcus Aui elius ordered the gladiator
to fight with blunted swords, as he ais
ordered that no rope-dancers should pei
form without asnet or mattress bein
spread beneath them. But such rare an
and honorable exceptions only help
prove the rule. During the Reign G
Terror in France spirit very like tha