§ 23. ABOLITION OF GLADIATOllIAL SHOWS. 1°23
Those bloodj shows, in which linman beings, mostly crim.' iiials, prisoners of war, and barbarians, by hundreds and thousands killed one another or were killed in fight with wild bcasta for the amusement of the spectators, were still in full favor at the beginning of the period before us. The pagan civilization here proves itself impotent. In its eyes the Kfe of a l^arbarian is of no other use than to serve the cruel amusement of the lioman people, who wish quietly to behold with their own eyes and enjoy at home the martial bloodshedding of their frontiers. Even the humane Symmachus gave an exhibition of this kind during his consulate (391), and was enraged that twenty-nine Saxon prisoners of war escaped this public shame by suicide.' While the Vestal virgins existed, it was their special prerogative to cheer on the combatants in the amphitheatre to the bloody work, and to give the signal for the deadly stroke.*
The contagion of the thirst for blood, which these spectacles generated, is presented to us in a striking example by Augustine in his Confessions.^ His friend Alypius, afterward bishop of Tagaste, was induced by some friends in 385 to visit the amphitheatre at Rome, and went resolved to lock himself up against all impressions. " When they reached the spot," says Augustine, " and took their places on the hired seats, everything already foamed with bloodthirsty delight. But Alypius, with closed eyes, forbade his soul to yield to this sin. O had he but stopped also his ears ! For when, on the fall of a gladiator in the contest, the wild shout of the whole multitude fell upon him, overcome by curiosity he opened his eyes, though prepared to despise and resist the sight. But he was smitten with a more grievous wound in the soul than the combatant
' Symm. 1. ii. Ep. 46. Comp. vii. 4. ' Prudentius Adv. Symaiach. ii. 1095 :
Virgo — consurgit ad ictu3,
Et quotiens victor ferrura jugulo iuserit, ilia
Delicias ait esse suas, pectusque jacentis
Virgo modesta jubet, converso poUice, rumpi ;
Ni latcat para ulla animae vitalibua imis,
Altius impresso dum palpitat enae secutor. • Lib. ^L c. 8.
124 THIRD PliKIOD. A.D. 311-590.
in the body, aud fell more lamentably. . . . For wben he savr tlie blood, he imbibed at once the love of it, turned not away, fastened his eyes upon it, caught the spirit of rage and vengeance before he knew it, and, fascinated with the murderous game, became drunk with bloodthirsty joy. . . . He looked, shouted applause, burned, and carried wdth him thence tlie frenzy, by which he was drawn to go back, not only with Ihose who had taken him thei-e, but before them, and taking othei-s with him."
Christianity finally succeeded in closing the amphitheatre. Oonstantine, who in his earlier reign himself did homage to the popular custom in this matter, and exjiosed a great multitude of conquered barbarians to death in the ampliitheatre at Treves, for which he was highly commended by a heathen orator,' issued in 325, the year of the great council of the cliurcl) at Nice, the first prohibition of the bloody spectacles, " because tliey cannot be pleasing in a time of public peace."" But this edict, which is directed to the prefects of Phoenicia, had no permanent effect even in the East, except at Constantinople, which was never stained with the blood of gladiators. In Syria and especially in the West, above all in Rome, the deeply rooted institution continued into the fifth century. Honorius (395-423), who at first considered it indestructible, abolished the gladiatorial shows about 404, and did so at the instance of the heroic self-denial of an eastern monk by the name of Telemachus, who journeyed to Rome expressly to protest against this- inhuman barbarity, tln-ew himself into the arena, separated the combatants, and then was torn to pieces by the populace, a martyr to humanity.^ Yet this put a stop only to the bloody combats of men. Unbloody spectacles of every kind, even on the high festivals of the church and amid&t
^ Eumenii Pancgyr. c. 1 2.
^ Cod. Thood. XV. tit. 12,1. 1, de gladiatoribns : "Cnienta spectacula in otio civili ct domcstica quiote nou placent; qnaproptcr omriino gladiatoiee esse piohibemns." Coiiip. Euseb. Vita Const, iv. 25.
' So relates Thcodoret: Hist. eecl. 1. v. c. 20. For there is no law of Ilonoriuf extant on the subject. Yet after this time there is no [nention of a gladiatorial co» test between man and man.