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amphitheatre disgorged at once a hundred lions; CHAP, a hundred darts from the unerring hand of Com modus laid them dead as they ran raging round the Arena. Neither the huge bulk of the elev phant, nor the scaly hide of the rhinoceros, could defend them from his stroke. Ethiopia and India yielded their most extraordinary produc tions; and several animals were slain in the amphitheatre, which had been seen only in the representations of art, or perhaps of fancy *. In all these exhibitions, the securest precautions were used to protect the person of the Roman Hercules from the desperate spring of any savage, who might possibly disregard the dignity of the emperor, and the sanctity of the god t Halo face were affected But the meanest of the populace with shame and indignation when they beheld Acts as a their sovereign enter the lists as a gladiator, and glory in a profession which the laws and manners of the Romans had branded with the justest note of infamy. He chose the habit and arms of

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* Commodus killed a camelopardalis or Giraffe (Dion, l. Ixxii. p. 1211.), the tallest, the most gentle, and the most useless of the large quadrupeds. This singular animal, a native only of the interior parts of Africa, has not been seen in Europe since revival of letters; and though h M. de Buffon (Hist. Naturelle, tom. xin.) has endeavoured to describe, he has not ventured to delineate, the Giraffe.

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The virtuous and even the wise princes forbade the senators and knights to embrace this scandalous profession, under pain of infamy, or, what was more dreaded by those profligate wretches, of exile. The tyrants allured them to dishonour by threats and rewards. Nero once produced, in the Arena, forty senators and sixty knights. See Lipsius, Saturnalia, 1. ii. c. 2. He has happily corrected a passage of Suetonius, in Nerone, c. 19.

gladiator.

CHAP the Secutor, whose combat with the Retiarius IV. formed one of the most lively scenes in the bloody sports of the amphitheatre, The Secutor was armed with an helmet, sword, and buckler; his naked antagonist had only a large net and a trident with the one he endeavoured to entangle, with the other to dispatch, his enemy. If he missed the first throw, he was obliged to fly from the pursuit of the Srcutor, till he had prepared his net for a second cast *. The emperor fought in this character seven hundred and thirtyfive several times. These glorious atchievements were carefully recorded in the public acts of the empire; and that he might omit no circumstance of infamy, he received from the common fund of gladiators, a stipend so exorbitant, that it became a new and most ignominious tax upon the Roman people t. It may be easily supposed, that in these engagements the master of the world was always successful: in the amphitheatre his victories were not often sanguinary; but when he exercised his skill in the school of gladiators, or his own palace, his wretched antagonists were frequently honoured with a mortal wound from the hand of Commodus, and obliged to seal their His infamy flattery with their blood 1. He now disdained the appellation of Hercules. The name of Paulus, a celebrated Secutor, was the only one which

and extravagance.

delighted

*Lipsius, 1. ii. c. 7, 8. Juvenal, in the eighth satire, gives a picturesque description of this combat.

† Hist. August. p. 50. Dion, 1. lxxii. p. 1220. He received for each time, decies, about 8000l. sterling.

Victor tells us, that Commodus only allowed his antagonists a leaden weapon, dreading most probably the consequences of their despair.

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delighted his ear. It was inscribed on his colossal CHAP. statues, and repeated in the redoubled acclamations* of the mournful and applauding senáte . Claudius Pompeianus, the virtuous husband of Lucilla, was the only senator who asserted the honour of his rank. As a father, he permitted his sons to consult their safety by attending the amphitheatre. As a Roman, he declared, that his own life was in the emperor's hands, but that he would never behold the son of Marcus prostituting his person and dignity. Notwithstanding his manly resolution, Pompeianus escaped the resentment of the tyrant, and with his honour, had the good fortune to preserve his life ‡.

Commodus had now attained the summit of vice and infamy. Amidst the acclamations of a flattering court, he was unable to disguisé, from himself, that he had deserved the contempt and hatred of every man of sense and virtue in his empire. His ferocious spirit was irritated by the consciousness of that hatred, by the envy of every kind of merit, by the just apprehension of danger, and by the habit of slaughter, which he contracted in his daily amusements. History

has

*They were obliged to repeat six hundred and twenty six times, Paulus frst of the Secutors, &c.

+ Dion, 1. lxxii. p. 1221. He speaks of his own baseness and danger.

He mixed However some prudence with his courage, and passed the greates part of his time in a country retirement; alleging his advanced age, and the weakness of his eyes. "I never saw him in the senate," says Dion, "except during the short reign of Pertinax." All his infirmities had suddenly left him, and they returned as suddenly upon the murder of that excellent prince. Dion, 1. lxxiii. p. 1227.

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IV. crificed to his wanton suspicion, which sought ut, with peculiar anxiety, those unfortunate percy of his icons connected, however remotely, with the family of the Antonines, without sparing even the 10 ministers of his crimes or pleasures. His cruelty T proved at last fatal to himself. He had shed with impunity the noblest blood of Rome: he perished s as soon as he was dreaded by his own domestics. Marcia his favourite concubine, Eclectus his chamberlain, and Lætus his Prætorian præfect, alarmed by the fate of their companions tandi predecessors, resolved to prevent the destruction which every hour hung over their heads, eitherm from thes mad caprice of the tyrant, or the sud-a den indignation of the people. Márcia seized the occasion of presenting a draught of wine to her lover, after he had fatigued himself with hunting some wild beasts. Commodus retired to sleep; but whilst he was labouring with the effects of poison and drunkenness, a robust youth, by profession a wrestler, entered his chamber, and strangled him without resistance. The body was secretly conveyed out of the palace, before the least suspicion was entertained in the city, or even in the court, of the emperor's death. Such was the fate of the son of Marcus, and so easy.

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The Præfects were changed almost hourly or daily; and the caprice of Commodus was often fatal to his most favourite chamberlains. Hist. August. p. 46. 51.

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