444 See the picture of this scene in Tacitus, _Hist._ iii. 83.
445 Dion. Halicarna.s.s.
446 "Divina Natura dedit agros; ars humana aedificavit urbes."
447 See a collection of pa.s.sages from these writers in Wallon, _Hist. de l"Esclavage_, tome ii. pp. 378-379. Pliny, in the first century, noticed (_Hist. Nat._ xviii. 7) that the _latifundia_, or system of large properties, was ruining both Italy and the provinces, and that six landlords whom Nero killed were the possessors of half Roman Africa.
448 Tacit. _Annal._ xii. 43. The same complaint had been made still earlier by Tiberius, in a letter to the Senate. (_Annal._ iii. 54.)
449 Augustus, for a time, contemplated abolishing the distributions, but soon gave up the idea. (Suet. _Aug._ xlii.) He noticed that it had the effect of causing the fields to be neglected.
450 M. Wallon has carefully traced this history. (_Hist. de l"Esclav._ tome iii. pp. 294-297.)
451 Livy, iv. 59-60. Florus, i. 12.
452 Livy, xxiv. 49.
453 Sall.u.s.t, _Bell. Jugurth._ 84-86.
454 Livy, x.x.xix. 6.
455 "Primus Caesarum fidem militis etiam praemio pigneratus."-Suet.
_Claud._ x.
456 See Tacitus, _Annal._ xiii. 35; _Hist._ ii. 69.
457 M. Sismondi thinks that the influence of Christianity in subduing the spirit of revolt, if not in the army, at least in the people, was very great. He says: "Il est remarquable qu"en cinq ans, sept pretendans au trone, tous bien superieurs a Honorius en courage, en talens et en vertus, furent successivement envoyes captifs a Ravenne ou punis de mort, que le peuple applaudit toujours a ces jugemens et ne se separa point de l"autorite legitime, tant la doctrine du droit divin des rois que les eveques avoient commence a precher sous Theodose avoit fait de progres, et tant le monde romain sembloit determine a perir avec un monarque imbecile plutot que tente de se donner un sauveur."-_Hist. de la Chute de l"Empire romain_, tome i.
p. 221.
458 See Gibbon, ch. v.; Merivale"s _Hist. of Rome_, ch. lxvii. It was thought that troops thus selected would be less likely to revolt.
Constantine abolished the Praetorians.
459 The gladiatorial shows are treated incidentally by most Roman historians, but the three works from which I have derived most a.s.sistance in this part of my subject are the _Saturnalia_ of Justus Lipsius, Magnin, _Origines du Theatre_ (an extremely learned and interesting book, which was unhappily never completed), and Friedlaender"s _Roman Manners from Augustus to the Antonines_ (the second volume of the French translation). M. Wallon has also compressed into a few pages (_Hist. de l"Esclavage_, tome ii. pp.
129-139) much information on the subject.
460 Hence the old name of _bustuarii_ (from _bustum_, a funeral pile) given to gladiators (Nieupoort, _De Ritibus Romanorum_, p. 514).
According to Pliny (_Hist. Nat._ x.x.x. 3), "regular human sacrifices were only abolished in Rome by a decree of the senate, B.C. 97," and there are some instances of them at a still later period. Much information about them is collected by Sir C. Lewis, _Credibility of Roman History_, vol. ii. p. 430; Merivale, _Conversion of the Roman Empire_, pp. 230-233; Legendre, _Traite de l"Opinion_, vol. i. pp.
229-231. Porphyry, in his _De Abstinentia Carnis_, devoted considerable research to this matter. Games were habitually celebrated by wealthy private individuals, during the early part of the empire, at the funerals of their relatives, but their mortuary character gradually ceased, and after Marcus Aurelius they had become mere public spectacles, and were rarely celebrated at Rome by private men. (See Wallon, _Hist. de l"Esclav._ tome ii. pp.
135-136.) The games had then really pa.s.sed into their purely secular stage, though they were still nominally dedicated to Mars and Diana, and though an altar of Jupiter Latiaris stood in the centre of the arena. (Nieupoort, p. 365.)
461 Cicero, _Tusc._ lib. ii.
462 Capitolinus, _Maximus et Balbinus_. Capitolinus says this is the most probable origin of the custom, though others regarded it as a sacrifice to appease Nemesis by an offering of blood.
463 Much curious information on this subject may be found in Friedlaender, _Murs romaines_, liv. vi. ch. i. Very few Roman emperors ventured to disregard or to repress these outcries, and they led to the fall of several of the most powerful ministers of the empire. On the whole these games represent the strangest and most ghastly form political liberty has ever a.s.sumed. On the other hand, the people readily bartered all genuine freedom for abundant games.
464 Valer. Maximus, ii. 4, -- 7.
465 On the gladiators at banquets, see J. Lipsius, _Saturnalia_, lib. i.
c. vi., Magnin; _Origines du Theatre_, pp. 380-385. This was originally an Etruscan custom, and it was also very common at Capua.
As Silius Italicus says:-
"Exhilarare viris convivia caede Mos olim, et miscere epulis spectacula dira."
Verus, the colleague of Marcus Aurelius, was especially addicted to this kind of entertainment. (Capitolinus, _Verus_.) See, too, Athenaeus iv. 40, 41.
466 Senec. _De Brevit. Vit._ c. xiii.
467 Sueton. _J. Caesar_, xxvi. Pliny (_Ep._ vi. 34) commends a friend for having given a show in memory of his departed wife.
468 Pliny, _Hist. Nat._ x.x.xiii. 16.
469 Sueton. _Caesar_, x.; Dion Ca.s.sius, xliii. 24.
470 Sueton. _Aug._ xxix. The history of the amphitheatres is given very minutely by Friedlaender, who, like nearly all other antiquaries, believes this to have been the first of stone. Pliny mentions the existence, at an earlier period, of two connected wooden theatres, which swung round on hinges and formed an amphitheatre. (_Hist.
Nat._ x.x.xvi. 24.)
471 Dion Ca.s.sius, liv. 2. It appears, however, from an inscription, that 10,000 gladiators fought in the reign and by the command of Augustus. Wallon_, Hist. de l"Esclavage_, tome ii. p. 133.
472 Sueton. _Tiber._ x.x.xiv. Nero made another slight restriction (Tacit.
_Annal._ xiii. 31), which appears to have been little observed.
473 Martial notices (_Ep._ iii. 59) and ridicules a spectacle given by a shoemaker at Bologna, and by a fuller at Modena.
474 Epictetus, _Enchir._ x.x.xiii. -- 2.
475 Arrian, iii. 15.
476 See these points minutely proved in Friedlaender.
477 Suet. _Aug._ xliv. This was noticed before by Cicero. The Christian poet Prudentius dwelt on this aspect of the games in some forcible lines:-
"Virgo modesta jubet converso pollice rumpi Ne lateat pars ulla animae vitalibus imis Altius impresso dum palpitat ense secutor."
478 Sueton. _Tiberius_, xl. Tacitus, who gives a graphic description of the disaster (_Annal._ iv. 62-63), says 50,000 persons were killed or wounded.
479 Tacit. _Annal._ xiii. 49.
480 Joseph. _Bell. Jud._ vi. 9.
481 See the very curious picture which Livy has given (xli. 20) of the growth of the fascination.
482 Joseph. _Antiq. Jud._ xix. 7.
483 Lucian, _Demonax_.
484 Philost. _Apoll._ iv. 22.
485 Friedlaender, tome ii. pp. 95-96. There are, however, several extant Greek inscriptions relating to gladiators, and proving the existence of the shows in Greece. Pompeii, which was a Greek colony, had a vast amphitheatre, which we may still admire; and, under Nero, games were prohibited at Pompeii for ten years, in consequence of a riot that broke out during a gladiatorial show. (Tacit. _Annal._ xiv.