490; and for
some time they were exhibited only on such occasions. But afterwards they
were also employed by the magistrates, to entertain the people,
particularly at the Saturnalia, and feasts of Minerva. These cruel
spectacles were prohibited by Constantine, but not entirely suppressed
until the time of Honorius.]

[Footnote 66: The Circensian games were shews exhibited in the Circus
Maximus, and consisted of various kinds: first, chariot and horse-races,
of which the Romans were extravagantly fond. The charioteers were
distributed into four parties, distinguished by the colour of their dress.
The spectators, without regarding the speed of the horses, or the skill of
the men, were attracted merely by one or the other of the colours, as
caprice inclined them. In the time of Justinian, no less than thirty
thousand men lost their lives at Constantinople, in a tumult raised by a
contention amongst the partizans of the several colours. Secondly,
contests of agility and strength; of which there were five kinds, hence
called Pentathlum. These were, running, leaping, boxing, wrestling, and
throwing the discus or quoit. Thirdly, Ludus Trojae, a mock-fight,
performed by young noblemen on horseback, revived by Julius Caesar, and
frequently celebrated by the succeeding emperors. We meet with a
description of it in the fifth book of the Aeneid, beginning with the
following lines:

Incedunt pueri, pariterque ante ora parentum Fraenatis lucent in equis:
quos omnis euntes Trinacriae mirata fremit Trojaeque juventus.

Fourthly, Venatio, which was the fighting of wild beasts with one another,
or with men called Bestiarii, who were either forced to the combat by way
of punishment, as the primitive Christians were, or fought voluntarily,
either from a natural ferocity of disposition, or induced by hire. An
incredible number of animals of various kinds were brought from all
quarters, at a prodigious expense, for the entertainment of the people.
Pompey, in his second consulship, exhibited at once five hundred lions,
which were all dispatched in five days; also eighteen elephants. Fifthly
the representation of a horse and foot battle, with that of an encampment
or a siege. Sixthly, the representation of a sea-fight (Naumachia), which
was at first made in the Circus Maximus, but afterwards elsewhere. The
combatants were usually captives or condemned malefactors, who fought to
death, unless saved by the clemency of the emperor.