ors out of a school of some six hundred
filled Rome with death and alarm. Killing their keepers, they broke into
the streets, which they set afloat with blood, and only after an
obstinate resistance and ample revenge were they at length overpowered
and cut to pieces by the soldiers of the city. But such outbreaks were
but few, and the Roman multitude usually enjoyed its cruel sports in
safety.

We cannot here describe the many remarkable displays made by successive
emperors, and which grew more lavish as time went on. Probus, about 280
A.D., gave a show in which the arena was transformed into a forest,
large trees, dug up by the roots, being transported and planted
throughout its space. In this miniature forest were set free a thousand
ostriches, and an equal number each of stags, fallow deer, and wild
boars. These were given to the multitude to assail and slay at their
will. On the following day, the populace being now safely screened from
danger, there were slain in the arena a hundred lions, as many
lionesses, two hundred leopards, and three hundred bears.

The younger Gordian, in his triumphal games, astonished the Romans by
the strangeness of the animals displayed, in search of which the whole
known world was ransacked. The curious mob now beheld the graceful forms
of twenty zebras, and the remarkable stature of ten giraffes, brought
from remote African plains. There were shown, in addition, ten elks, as
many tigers from India, and thirty African hyenas. To these were added a
troop of thirty-two elephants, and the uncouth forms of the hippopotamus
of the Nile and the rhinoceros of the African wilds. These animals,
familiar to us, were new to their observers, and filled the minds of
their spectators with wonder and awe.

Gladiators, as we have said, were not confined to slaves, captives, and
criminals. Roman citizens, emulous of the fame and rewards of the
successful combatant, entered their ranks, and men of birth and fortune,
thirsting for the excitement of the arenal strife, were often seen in
the lists. In the reign of Nero, senators, and even women of high birth,
appeared as combatants; and Domitian arranged a battle between dwarfs
and women. As late as 200 A.D. an edict forbidding women to fight became
necessary.

The emperors, as a rule, were content with sending their subjects to
death in those frightful shows; but one of them, Commodus, proud of his
strength and skill, himself entered the lists as a com