and.

The servile crowd, whose fortune depended on their master's vices,
applauded these ignoble pursuits. The perfidious voice of flattery
reminded him that by exploits of the same nature, by the defeat of the
Nemaean lion, and the slaughter of the wild boar of Erymanthus, the
Grecian Hercules had acquired a place among the gods and an immortal
memory among men. They only forgot to observe that in the first ages of
society, when the fiercer animals often dispute with man the possession
of an unsettled country, a successful war against those savages is one
of the most innocent and beneficial labors of heroism. In the civilized
state of the Roman Empire the wild beasts had long since retired from
the face of man and the neighborhood of populous cities. To surprise
them in their solitary haunts and to transport them to Rome that they
might be slain in pomp by the hand of an emperor was an enterprise
equally ridiculous for the prince and oppressive for the people.

Ignorant of these distinctions, Commodus eagerly embraced the glorious
resemblance and styled himself (as we still read on his medals) the
Roman Hercules. The club and the lion's hide were placed by the side of
the throne, among the ensigns of sovereignty, and statues were erected
in which Commodus was represented in the character and with the
attributes of the god whose valor and dexterity he endeavored to emulate
in the daily course of his ferocious amusements.

Elated with these praises, which gradually extinguished the innate sense
of shame, Commodus resolved to exhibit before the eyes of the Roman
people those exercises which till then he had decently confined within
the walls of his palace and to the presence of a few favorites. On the
appointed day the various motives of flattery, fear, and curiosity
attracted to the Amphitheatre an innumerable multitude of spectators;
and some degree of applause was deservedly bestowed on the uncommon
skill of the imperial performer. Whether he aimed at the head or heart
of the animal, the wound was alike certain and mortal. With arrows whose
point was shaped into the form of a crescent Commodus often intercepted
the rapid career and cut asunder the long, bony neck of the ostrich.

A panther was let loose, and the archer waited till he had leaped upon a
trembling malefactor. In the same instant the shaft flew, the beast
dropped dead, and the man remained unhurt. The dens of the Amphitheatre
disgorged at once a hundred