264 THE ETHICAL KINSHIP 



went to refresh their reputations by hunting and 

 victimising the inhabitants. The history of Rome 

 is the history of infamy on a colossal, almost 

 world-wide, scale. There has never been dis- 

 played by any people pretending to be civilised 

 such shameless savagery as that displayed by the 

 Romans in their gladiatorial arenas, where men 

 (generally the captives of war) were ' butchered to 

 make a Roman holiday.' These tragedies, in their 

 magnitude and atrocity, seem almost frightful 

 when we read of them on the pages of history. 

 They were generally celebrated by victorious cap- 

 tains and emperors at the close of some unusual 

 outrage against the ' barbarians,' or upon the 

 departure of Roman legions for the field of activity. 

 The celebrations sometimes lasted weeks, or even 

 months. The Emperor Trajan celebrated his 

 victories over the Dacians with shows that lasted 

 more than a hundred days. During this horrible 

 festival ten thousand men fought upon the arena, 

 and more than ten thousand wild animals were 

 slain. The gladiators in these ancient combats 

 fought in chariots, on horseback, on foot — in all 

 the ways in which soldiers fought in actual battle. 

 They fought with swords, lances, daggers, tridents, 

 and every other manner of weapon. Some had 

 nets and lassoes with which they entangled their 

 adversaries, and then slew them. The life of a 

 wounded gladiator was in the hands of the 

 spectators, who showed their clemency or their 

 lack of it by turning their thumbs respectively 

 down or up. The thirst of the populace for blood 



