178 On the Use and Abuse of 



and licentious people. Men* were professedly- 

 instructed and regularly hired to sell their 

 blood, like gladiators, in these bestial contests. 

 Such enormities, great as they are, hide their 

 diminished heads, before the supreme wicked- 

 ness and cruelty of gladiatorial exhibitions. — 

 When the susceptibility to humane and tender 

 feelings became almost extinct by the bestial 

 encounters, it became necessary to gratify their 

 depraved appetites by the exhibition of human 

 butchery and sacrifice. So lost to every spark of 

 decency and humanity were this infatuated and 

 ferocious people, that the highest ranks of so- 

 ciety gloried in voluntarily taking a part in 

 these encounters : — and even the softer sex, 

 throwing aside every trait of amiable modesty 

 and timidity, were ambitious of displaying 

 their personal courage in these savage contests. 

 This conduct did not escape the lash of the 

 Roman satyr i St. 



« Cum — Ma^via Tuscumj" 



Figat aprum, & nuda teneat venabula mamma." 

 *' Or, when with naked breast the mannish whore, 

 *' Shakes the broad spear against the Tuscan boar." 



Persons of every age, sex and condition at- 

 tended these barbarous sports. The intoxica- 

 tion of the populace, from frequent gratlfica- 



^ These were called Bestiarii. 



