The gladiatorial combats came to an end, when, in A.D. 403, an oriental monk named Telemachus, was so horrified at them, that he rushed into the midst of the arena and besought the spectators to renounce them: instead of listening to him, they stoned him to death. The first martyrdom here was that of St Ignatius, said to have been the child especially blessed by our Saviour--the disciple of John--and the companion of Polycarp--who was sent here from Antioch, where he was bishop. When brought into the arena, he knelt down, and exclaimed, "Romans who are present, know that I have not been brought into this place for any crime, but in order that by this means I may merit the fruition of the glory of God, for love of whom I have been made prisoner. I am as the grain of the field, and must be ground by the teeth of the lions, that I may become bread fit for His table." The lions were then let loose, and devoured him, except the larger bones, which the Christians collected during the night. "It is related of Ignatius that he grew up in such innocence of heart and purity of life, that to him it was granted to hear the angels sing; hence, when he became bishop of Antioch, he introduced into the service of his church the practice of singing the praises of God in responses, as he had heard the choirs of angels answering each other.... His story and fate are so well attested, and so sublimely affecting, that it has always been to me a cause of surprise as well as regret to find so few representations of him."--_Jameson's Sacred Art_, 693. Soon after the death of Ignatius, 115 Christians were shot down here with arrows. Under Hadrian, A.D. 218, a patrician named Placidus, his wife Theophista, and his two sons, were first exposed here to the wild beasts, but when these refused to touch them were shut up in a brazen bull, and roasted by a fire lighted beneath. In 253, Abdon and Sennen, two rich citizens of Babylon, were exposed here to two lions and four bears, but on their refusing to attack them, were killed by the swords of the gladiators. In A.D. 259, Sempronius, Olympius, Theodulus, and Exuperia, were burnt at the entrance of the Coliseum, before the statue of the Sun. In A.D. 272, Sta. Prisca was vainly exposed here to a lion, then starved for three days, then stretched on a rack to have her flesh torn by iron hooks, then put into a furnace, and--having survived all these torments--was finally beheaded. In A.D. 277, Sta. Martina, another noble Roman lady, was exposed in vain to the beasts and afterwards beheaded in the Coliseum. St. Alexander under Antoninus; St. Potitus, 168; St. Eleutherius, bishop of Illyria, under Hadrian; St Maximus, son of a senator, 284; and Vitus, Crescentia, and Modesta, under Domitian, were also martyred here.[71]