Ruins of Ancient Cities (Vol. 2 of 2): With General and Particular Accounts of Their Rise, Fall, and Present ConditionBucke, Charles
History
Ruins of Ancient Cities (Vol. 2 of 2): With General and Particular Accounts of Their Rise, Fall, and Present Condition
Bucke, Charles
Cities and towns, Ancient
All that with potent teeth command the plain,
All that run horrid with erected mane,
Or proud of stately horns, or bristling hair,
At once the forest’s ornament and fear;
Torn from their deserts by the Roman power,
Nor strength can save, nor craggy dens secure.
Some creatures were presented merely as strange sights and rarities; as
crocodiles, and several outlandish birds and beasts: others for the
combat, as lions, tigers, leopards, &c. We may reckon up three sorts of
diversions with the beasts, which all went under the common name of
Venatio:—The first, when the people were permitted to run after the
beasts, and catch what they could for their own use; the second, when
the beasts fought with one another; and the last, when they were brought
out to engage with men.[188]
The fights between beasts were exhibited with great variety; sometimes a
tiger was matched with a lion; sometimes a lion with a bull; a bull with
an elephant; a rhinoceros with a bear, &c. But the most wonderful sight
was, when by bringing water into the amphitheatre, huge sea-monsters
were introduced to combat with wild beasts:—
No sylvan monsters we alone have view’d,
But huge sea calves, dyed red with hostile blood
Of bears, lie floundering in the wondrous flood.
CALPHURN. Eclog. vii.
The men, that engaged with wild beasts, had the common name of
Bestiarii. Some of these were condemned persons; others hired themselves
at a set pay, like the Gladiators; and like them, too, had their schools
where they were instructed and initiated in such combats. We find
several of the nobility and gentry many times voluntarily undertaking a
part in these encounters; and Juvenal acquaints us, that the very women
were ambitious of showing their courage on the like occasions, though
with the forfeiture of their modesty.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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