The passion for such spectacles and contests is incredible;--no “baseball” or “football” of another era can so monopolize the popular mind. The wagering on all kinds of contests is incessant in every insula, shop, or mansion, and, of course, ordinarily it is entirely lawful. Only the few select spirits cry out vainly against the passion, although Juvenal’s famous protest will echo across the centuries, “The Roman people who once gave commands, consulships, legions, and all else now yearn simply for two things--_free bread and the Public Games_!” The government doubtless encourages this tendency. If the multitude is engrossed with the merits of two charioteers, so much less is the scrutiny upon strange doings at the Palatine; yet even excellent emperors give very elaborate spectacles as a kind of lawful tribute to the multitudes of that city which affords them their right to the purple. After the conquest of Dacia, Trajan celebrated his victory by giving contests which lasted 123 days, during which 10,000 wild and domestic animals were said to have been killed and 10,000 gladiators fought, although probably most of the latter were allowed to survive. So incessant in fact are the contests of some variety, that rare is the day when a thunderous roar does not reverberate over the city telling that the “Blue” or “Green” jockeys have won, or a favorite gladiator has plunged home his trident. [Illustration: AT THE THEATER ENTRANCE. _After Von Falke._] =319. Expenses of Public Spectacles to Great Officials.=--Naturally the cost of these contests is enormous. The presidency and supervision of them is distributed around among the magistrates, with the chief glories and burdens falling usually upon the consuls and prætors.[202] The State gives each official a respectable sum to pay for the spectacles, but this falls far short of the actual cost. The glory of presiding in the central box at the Flavian Amphitheater or Circus Maximus is so great that a magistrate is bound to sacrifice a good share of his entire patrimony in order to make a fine display, to win the “Ave!” of the populace, and to hold up his head among his noble rivals. When Hadrian was prætor, his kinsman, Trajan the Emperor, gave him personally 4,000,000 sesterces ($160,000) towards the cost of those games which the prætorship demanded.