GLADIATORS. 



though the hands only were used. Epeus, 

 of gigantic stature, challenged the whole 

 of the Grecian chiefs, who were terrified 

 at his bulk, and Euryalus alone accepted 

 his defiance : 



" Him great Tydides urges to contend, 

 Warm with the hopes of conquest for 



his friend ; 

 Officious with the cincture girds him 



round, 

 And to his wrists the gloves of death 



are bound." 



The captives slain on this occasion 

 were not commanded to fight ; they had 

 been led to the pile, and died with the 

 sheep, oxen, coursers, and dogs, that 

 their bodies might be burnt by the 

 flames which consumed that of Patro- 

 c)us : 



" Then, last .of all, and horrible to tell, 

 Sad sacrifice ! twelve Trojan captives 

 fell." 



The above quotations positively prove, 

 that the Romans deviated from their pre- 

 decessors in the practice of this barba- 

 rous custom. The Greeks appear to 

 have destroyed their prisoners on a re- 

 vengeful principle, and despatched them 

 immediately; but the former refined up- 

 on cruelty, and would rather purchase 

 captives, or destroy the lives of ill-dispos- 

 ed slaves, than send the ashes of their 

 friends to the urn bloodless, or the spec- 

 tators of the obsequies home, without the 

 gratification of witnessing wretches cut- 

 ting each other to death, though not un- 

 der the influence of previous anger. Ac- 

 cording to Valerius Maximus, and Lam- 

 pridius in Heliogabalus, gladiators were 

 first introduced at Rome by M. and D 

 Brutus, at the funeral of their father, in 

 the consulship of Ap. Claudius and M. 

 Fulvius. 



The examples of great men, however 

 detestable, ever produce imitators. 

 Hence, though the brothers may have 

 acted from motives of family vanity only, 

 other great personages, perceiving that 

 the people delighted in the sight of 

 blood, determined to gratify them by 

 adopting the custom ; which was after- 

 wards extended to public exhibitions gi- 

 ven by the priests in the Ludi Sacerdo- 

 tales, and the magistrates, solely for the 

 amusement of the populace, or perhaps to 

 confirm them in an habitual contempt 

 for wounds and military death. 



Thus the family alluded to, introducing 

 perhaps three pair of gladiators to the 

 citizens of Rome, was the means of mul- 



tiplying their number to an amount which 

 is shocking to humanity ; for the subse- 

 quent emperors appear to have attempt- 

 ed to excel each other in assembling them 

 at their birth-day celebrations, at tri- 

 umphs, the consecration of edifices, at 

 their periodical games, and at the rejoic- 

 ings after great victories. 



As the dispositions of several of the 

 chief magistrates, who are recorded as 

 having exhibited gladiators, were mild 

 and merciful, it is but fair 1o suppose, 

 that Julius Caesar, who produced three 

 hundred and twenty pairs in his edile- 

 ship, Titus, Trajan, and others, submit- 

 ted to the custom in compliance with the 

 temper of the people, rather than from 

 any predilection to it in themselves. But 

 there are few pernicious practices which 

 do not carry their punishment with them. 

 The prevailing frenzy had at length ar- 

 rived to such an excess, that the gladia- 

 tors became sufficiently numerous to 

 threaten the safety of the state ; as when, 

 the Cataline conspiracy raged, an order 

 was issued to disperse the gladiators in 

 different garrisons, that they might not 

 join the disaffected party ; yet, although 

 the fears of the government were excit- 

 ed, it doth not appear that any steps 

 were taken to lessen their number, as 

 the Emperor Otho had it in his power 

 long after the above event to enlist 

 two thousand of them to serve against Vi- 

 tellius. 



The people thus cut off from society, 

 and rendered murderers per force, were 

 fully justified in considering the whole 

 Roman state their enemy ; nor was it sur- 

 prising that they were sometimes willing 

 to revenge themselves upon their op- 

 pressors. Spartacus, a gladiator, gave a 

 bold but unavailing example to his bre- 

 thren, by rushing out of an amphitheatre 

 at Verona, at the head of those collected 

 there for public exhibition, declaring war 

 against the Romans, and assembling so 

 great a force, as to make the citizens of 

 Rome tremble. Similar apprehensions 

 were entertained at intervals by enlight- 

 ened people, and Cicero observed, " The 

 shows of gladiators may possibly to some 

 persons seem barbarous and inhuman; 

 and, indeed, as the case now stands, I 

 cannot say that the censure is unjust. But 

 in those times, when only guilty persons 

 composed the number of combatants, 

 the ear perhaps might receive many bet- 

 ter instructions ; but it is impossible that 

 any thing which affects our eyes should 

 fortify us with more success against the 

 assaults of grief and death ." Still he had 



