e unembarrassed by other articles of belief.
The antiquaries have supposed this goddess to be synonymous with Fortune
and with Fate;[669] but it was in her vindictive quality that she was
worshipped under the name of Nemesis.

29.

He, their sire,
Butchered to make a Roman holiday.
Stanza cxli. lines 6 and 7.

Gladiators were of two kinds, compelled and voluntary; and were supplied
from several conditions;--from slaves sold for that purpose; from
culprits; from barbarian captives either taken in war, and, after being
led in triumph, set apart for the games, or those seized and condemned
as rebels; also from free citizens, some fighting for hire
(_auctorati_), others from a depraved ambition; at last even knights and
senators were exhibited,--a disgrace of which the first tyrant was
naturally the first inventor.[670] In the end, dwarfs, and even women,
fought; an enormity prohibited by Severus. Of these the most to be
pitied undoubtedly were the barbarian captives; and, to this species a
Christian writer[671] justly applies the epithet "innocent," to
distinguish them from the professional gladiators. Aurelian and Claudius
supplied great numbers of these unfortunate victims; the one after his
triumph, and the other on the pretext of a rebellion.[672] No war, says
Lipsius,[673] was ever so destructive to the human race as these sports.
In spite of the laws of Constantine and Constans, gladiatorial shows
survived the old established religion more than seventy years; but they
owed their final extinction to the courage of a Christian. In the year
404, on the kalends of January, they were exhibiting the shows in the
Flavian amphitheatre before the usual immense concourse of people.
Almachius, or Telemachus, an Eastern monk, who had travelled to Rome
intent on his holy purpose, rushed into the midst of the arena, and
endeavoured to separate the combatants. The Praetor Alypius, a person
incredibly attached to these games,[674] gave instant orders to the
gladiators to slay him; and Telemachus gained the crown of martyrdom,
and the title of saint, which surely has never either before or since
been awarded for a more noble exploit. Honorius immediately abolished
the shows, which were never afterwards revived. The story is told by
Theodoret[675] and Cassiodorus,[676] and seems worthy of credit
notwithstanding its place in the Ro