describes the journey, the triumph, and the games,
(330-660.)]

[Footnote 54: See the inscription in Mascou's History of the Ancient
Germans, viii. 12. The words are positive and indiscreet: Getarum
nationem in omne aevum domitam, &c.]

In these games of Honorius, the inhuman combats of gladiators [55]
polluted, for the last time, the amphitheater of Rome. The first
Christian emperor may claim the honor of the first edict which condemned
the art and amusement of shedding human blood; [56] but this benevolent
law expressed the wishes of the prince, without reforming an inveterate
abuse, which degraded a civilized nation below the condition of savage
cannibals. Several hundred, perhaps several thousand, victims were
annually slaughtered in the great cities of the empire; and the month
of December, more peculiarly devoted to the combats of gladiators, still
exhibited to the eyes of the Roman people a grateful spectacle of blood
and cruelty. Amidst the general joy of the victory of Pollentia, a
Christian poet exhorted the emperor to extirpate, by his authority,
the horrid custom which had so long resisted the voice of humanity and
religion. [57] The pathetic representations of Prudentius were less
effectual than the generous boldness of Telemachus, and Asiatic monk,
whose death was more useful to mankind than his life. [58] The Romans
were provoked by the interruption of their pleasures; and the rash
monk, who had descended into the arena to separate the gladiators, was
overwhelmed under a shower of stones. But the madness of the people soon
subsided; they respected the memory of Telemachus, who had deserved the
honors of martyrdom; and they submitted, without a murmur, to the
laws of Honorius, which abolished forever the human sacrifices of the
amphitheater. [5811] The citizens, who adhered to the manners of their
ancestors, might perhaps insinuate that the last remains of a martial
spirit were preserved in this school of fortitude, which accustomed the
Romans to the sight of blood, and to the contempt of death; a vain and
cruel prejudice, so nobly confuted by the valor of ancient Greece, and
of modern Europe! [59]

[Footnote 55: On the curious, though horrid, subject of the gladiators,
consult the two books of the Saturnalia of Lipsius, who, as an
antiquarian, is inclined to excuse the practice of antiquity, (tom. iii.
p. 483-545.)]

[Footnote 56: Cod. Theodos. l. xv. tit. xii. leg. i. The Commentary of
Godefroy affo