TH,B LION. • 35 



lion for hunting purposes, they were employed to draw pro- 

 cessional cars in those stupendous pageants that awed the 

 multitude and flattered the vanity of the conquerors. 



We read Hhat Ptolemy Philadelphus, King of Egypt, e.g. 285, in 

 his procession at Alexandria had twenty-four chariots drawn by 

 elephants, twelve by lions, seven by orixes, five by buffaloes, eight 

 by ostriches, four by wild asses, &c. 



Mark Anthony used lions in this way. Grordian possessed 

 sixty tame lions and thirty leopards. Heliogabalus, Emperor of 

 Rome, A.D. 218-22, employed lions to draw his chariot, and also 

 converted them to other sources of amusement. It is related of 

 this capricious monster that he used for diversion to make his 

 guests intoxicated, and locking them up in this condition, would 

 let in upon them during the night tamed lions, bears, and 

 panthers, which had had their claws and teeth previously extracted. 

 On the guests regaining their senses some of them would be 

 struck dead with fright. 



In the grand but degrading sports of the Roman emperors and 

 rulers, among the enormous numbers of wild animals turned into 

 their magnificent amphitheatres, lions were slaughtered by the 

 thousands. The wealth that must have been squandered in 

 procuring these animals, some of rare descriptions, from the 

 interiors of remote countries, the transporting of such stupendous 

 collections, to say nothing of the ingenuity exercised in their 

 capture, and the risk and loss of life involved, all simply for the 

 few days' carnage of a Roman revel, seems to border on the 

 incredible, and shows the wonderful power and opulence pos- 

 sessed by the men who could not only command such things to 

 be done, but think nothing of the expense involved. 



Gibbon^ informs us that " the hunting or exhibition of wild 

 animals was conducted with a magnificence suitable to a people 

 who styled themselves masters of the world ; nor was the edifice 

 appropriated to that entertainment less expressive of Roman 

 greatness. Posterity admires, and will long admire, the awful re- 

 mains of the amphitheatre of Titus, which so well deserved the 



2 Eankin's " Wars and Sports of the Mongols and Eomans." 



3 "The Decline and Fall of the Eoman Empire." 



D 2 



