GLADIATORS. 
The above quotations positively prove, 
that the Romans deviated from their prede- 
cessors in the practice of this barbarous 
custom. The Greeks appear to have de- 
stroyed their prisoners on a revengeful prin- 
ciple, and dispatched them immediately; 
but the former retined upon cruelty, and 
would rather purchase captives, or destroy 
the lives of ill-disposed slaves, than send 
the ashes of their friends to the urn blood- 
less, or the spectators of the obsequies 
home, without the gratification of witness- 
ing wretches cutting each other to death, 
though not under the influence of previous 
anger. According to Valerius Maximus, 
and Lampridius 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. Ful- 
vius. 
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 de- 
lighted in the sight of blood, determined to 
gratify them by adopting the custom ; which 
was afterwards extended to public exhibi- 
tions given by the priests in the Ludi Sa- 
cerdotales, 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 citi- 
zens of Rome, was the means of multiply- 
ing their number >to an amount which is 
shocking to humanity ; for the subsequent 
emperors appear to have attempted to ex- 
cel eaeli other in assembling them at their 
birth-day celebrations, at triumphs, the 
consecration of edifices, at their periodical 
games, and at the rejoicings after great vic- 
tories. 
‘As the dispositions of several of the chief 
magistrates who are recorded as having ex- 
hibited gladiators were mild and merciful, 
it is but fair to suppose, that Julius Caesar, 
who produced three hundred and twenty 
pairs in his edilesliip, Titus, Trajan, and 
others, submitted Jo the custom in compli- 
ance with the temper of the people, rather 
than from any predilection to it in them- 
selves. But there are few pernicious prac- 
tices which do not carry their punishment 
with them. The prevailing frenzy had at 
length arrived to such an excess, that the 
gladiators became sufficiently numerous to 
threaten the safety of the state ; as when 
the Catiline conspiracy raged, an order <vas 
issued to disperse the gladiators in different 
garrisons, that they might not join the dis- 
affected party : yet although the fears of the 
government were excited, it doth not ap- 
pear 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 
Vitellins. 
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 surprising 
that they were sometimes willing to revenge 
themselves upon their oppressors. Sparta- 
cus, a gladiator, gave a bold but unavailing 
example to his brethren, by rushing out of 
an amphitheatre at Verona, at the head of 
those collected there for public exhibition, 
declaring war against the Romans, and as- 
sembling so great a force as to make the 
citizens of Rome tremble. Similar appre- 
hensions were entertained at intervals by 
enlightened 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 can- 
not say that the censure is unjust. But in 
those times, when only guilty persons com- 
posed the number of combatants, the ear 
perhaps might receive many better instruc- 
tions ; 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 the good sense to 
propose a law prohibiting all candidates for 
offices from exhibiting gladiators within two 
years before they became such. Julius Caj- 
sar limited their number in Rome. Augus- 
tus ordained that not more than sixty pairs 
of combatants should fight at one exhibi- 
tion, and that there should be only two of 
the latter in a year. During the reign of 
Tiberius it was decreed, that gladiators 
were not to be brought before the public 
by persons worth less than 400,000 ses- 
terces. Constantine the Great had the hu- 
manity and courage to abolish the custom, 
afterithad prevailed near six hundred years ; 
but it revived under Constantins Theodo- 
sius and Valentinian, and was finally sup- 
pressed by the Emperor Honorius. 
The guilty persons alluded to by Cicero 
must apply to those slaves whose masters 
sold them, for disobedience or mal practices, 
to the Lanistae, who instructing them in the 
arts of attack and defence, hired them to 
any rich man disposed to exhibit them. 
