The Sentinel. [volume] (Trenton, N.J.) 1880-1882, 1882-10-14
Roman Cruelty.
A National Conservation Of Inhumanity

That at an advanced period of mater
ial 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 q protest for centuries, but
should have formed the chief and in
dispensable amusement of both sexes
and all classes of the population, in
Guiding the hlghest-this appears on
first sight to modern thinkers moral
fact almost incredible in its atrocity.
And so firm, moreover, was their hold
on popular sympathy that they lasted
long after the conversion of the empire
to Christianity. Constantine, to be
sure, issued an edict suppressing the
gladiatorial shows, but il 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 combat
ants 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 GUS
tom, which is commonly alleged to.
have sprung out OF 3 rite OF human
sacrifice offered at the tombs of great
men; though some scholars, like
Mommsen, deny the existence OF
human sacrifice at Rome. Later on
motives of loIicy conspired to sustain
the practice, both as means of keep
ing up the military spirit of the people
and as Offering the sole opportunity
under despot Emperor for the thou.
sands of citizens then assembled in
presence of their sovereign and his
Minister to present petitions and make
known their grievances.
Still these explanations do not carry
US very far. Theatrical entertain
ments, such as the Greeks delighted
in, would have answered the latter
purpose quite as well, but for appre-
ciating 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 different kinds
Of vice, which might appear to have
no mutual connection, do yet act and
react on one another, so here the in
tense craving after excitement engen-
dered and gratified by gladiatorial
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
effigy but in the person of condemned
criminal, but the deeds of gods and
heroes were represented, as Juvensl
says, to the life. Nor can 1t be ques-
tioned--and it is chiefly in or lei to
illustrate that terrible lesson that we
have referred to the subject here-that
the gladiator shows betrayed not mere
ly ind fference to human suffering, but
that capacity 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 glad
iaIors, as he had come to take kind
of artistic pleasure in observing the
variation in their agony. Hellogabalus
and Galerius used to regale themselves
while at the table with the spectacle
of animals devoured by wild beasts !;
and Lactantius says of Galerius "he
never supped without human blood"
And what is more horrible still "beau.
titul eyes, trembling with passion,
looked down upon the light; and the
noblest ladies in Rome, even the EN-
press herself, had been known to crave
the victor's love- A story told by St
Augustine exhibits the CHASTITY fascina-
ton Of the spectacle. A Christian
friend of his had somehow been drawn
into the amphitheatre, which Chris
tians were stricly forbidden to enter,
and resolved to guard against the temp
tation to sinful enjoyment by keeping
his eyes closed; sudden cry led HIM
to look up, and he was uns BILE to with
draw his gaze again.
If 1t shocks us to find among a high.
ly civilized people this national conse-
Grafton of cruelty, it is perhaps more
startling that with few exceptions
the noveIists and philosophers of the
day had not word to say against 1t.
The refined and gentle. hearted Cicero
calmly observes tnat some men think
these spectacles cruel and lnhuman,
but to make this use of criminals Is
really 10 present to the eye an excellent
discipline against suffering and death.
Juvenaps aristocratic feelings were
outraged at the Roman nobility con-
descending to act as gladiators but