THE LAST GLADIATORIAL COMBAT.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume V, Issue 46, 15 November 1890, Page 10

THE LAST GLADIATORIAL COMBAT.

(SEE ILLUSTRATION, PAGE 1.) The custom of exhibiting gladiators in the arena at Rome may be traced back for more than 2,000 years, and it existed at a still earlier period among other Italian peoples. It was a survival of the funeral sacrifices of the heroic age when captives and slaves were slaughtered at the obsequies of a chieftain or famous warrior, in order that he might not go unattended to the world of spirits ; and a somewnat similar custom still lingers among uncultured people. Thence the development into a spectacle was not difficult, and rulers pandered to the sanguinary passions of the mob as a means of gaining or of retaining their goodwill; and when an army was departing on any expedition it was usual to give a gladiatorial show in order, as it was said, to accustom young soldiers to the sight of blood. At first from twenty to thirty pairs were thought sufficient to send into the arena, but the number was gradually increased, and Ciesar, during his edileship regaled the mob with a spectacle in which 600 gladiators took part. In later years the shows lasted a considerable time, and on the occasion of the triumph of Trajan over the Dacians 10,000 men are computed to have been killed during the hundred days the games lasted. The first gladiators were naturally prisoners of war, to whom grace was accorded if they fought bravely ; then slaves, and ultimately free men, were trained to the horrible business, the lanista, or trainer, being either a retired gladiator, or a veteran who had seen service. From the Roman satirists we learn that women occasionally descended into the arena ; Dryden, in his translation of the sixth satire of Juvenal, says—‘Of every exercise the mannish crew Fulfils the parts, and oft excels us too ; Prepared not only in feigned fights to engage. But rout the gladiators on the stage.’ Wherever the Romans extended their domination they introduced this savage custom, and the bull-fights of Spain are a survival from the times when the masters of the world gave the sanction of their authority to such cruel practices. Seneca raised his voice against the barbarous custom of matching man against man in deadly fight, and spoke in indignant terms of the moral degradation that must necessarily follow the witnessing and delight in the shedding of blood. Cicero, on the other hand, in the Tuseulan Disputations, warmly defends the use, and faintly condemns the abuse, of such sjiectacles, and tells us (ii. 17) that •no discipline can be better to fortify one against pain and death.’ The early Christian writers raised their voices against such exhibitions, to which so many of their co-religionists were doomed ; and to Constantine belongs the honour of issuing the first edict condemning them, though it contains an emphatic expression of his private feelings rather than an absolute prohibition of them. In the reign of Honorius, in the year 404, the incident took place which led to their total abolition, and which is depicted in our illustration. A monk named Telemachus was on a visit to Rome from the East. One day, following a crowd of people, he entered the Coliseum where a gladiatorial combat was about to take place. Soon a retiarius, almost nude, armed with his net and trident, entered, followed by the sccutor, as his opponent was called, equipped with sword, shield, and helmet. The victory usually fell to the retiarius, who could move much more mimbly than the secutor. The fight went on for some time, till at last the net enveloped the muscular form of the ill-fated man ; the crowd had given the fatal signal, and the conqueror was about to plunge the trident into the breast of his fallen foe. Telemachus could bear the sight no longer. Leaping down into the arena, he interposed on behalf of the vanquished secutor, and seizing the arm of the victor, exclaimed, ‘ Thou shalt do no murder !’ The people, trained to such bloody spectacles, and indignant that their pleasme should Ire interfered with, fell on the brave monk, and lie paid for his merciful interference with his life. The sacrifice, however, was not without good results, for the Emperor immediately issued an edict forbidding all such spectacles in future. Our illustration is engraved from a painting by Herr Stallaert, professor at the Academy of Brussels.