ains more specimens of this animal than have been seen
in Europe since the fall of the Roman empire, unless in the pleasure
gardens of the emperor Frederic II., in Sicily, which possessed several.
Frederic's collections of wild beasts were exhibited, for the popular
amusement, in many parts of Italy. Raumer, Geschichte der Hohenstaufen,
v. iii. p. 571. Gibbon, moreover, is mistaken; as a giraffe was
presented to Lorenzo de Medici, either by the sultan of Egypt or the
king of Tunis. Contemporary authorities are quoted in the old work,
Gesner de Quadrupedibum p. 162.--M.]

[Footnote 35: Herodian, l. i. p. 37. Hist. August. p. 50.]

But the meanest of the populace were affected with shame and indignation
when they beheld 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. [36] He chose the habit and
arms of the Secutor, whose combat with the Retiarius formed one of the
most lively scenes in the bloody sports of the amphitheatre. The Secutor
was armed with a helmet, sword, and buckler; his naked antagonist had
only a large net and a trident; with the one he endeavored to entangle,
with the other to despatch his enemy. If he missed the first throw, he
was obliged to fly from the pursuit of the Secutor, till he had prepared
his net for a second cast. [37] The emperor fought in this character
seven hundred and thirty-five several times. These glorious achievements
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. [38] 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 honored with a mortal wound
from the hand of Commodus, and obliged to seal their flattery with their
blood. [39] He now disdained the appellation of Hercules. The name of
Paulus, a celebrated Secutor, was the only one which delighted his ear.
It was inscribed on his colossal statues, and repeated in the redoubled
acclamations [40] of the mournful and applauding senate. [41] Claudius
Pompeianus, the virtuous husband of Lucilla, was the