ined the people in the Forum with eleven pair, and
the show lasted three days. B.C. 201, the three sons of M. Valerius
Laevinus exhibited twenty-five pairs. And thus these shows increased in
number and frequency, and the taste for them strengthened with its
gratification, until not only the heir of any rich or eminent person
lately deceased, but all the principal magistrates, and the candidates
for magistracies, presented the people with shows of this nature to
gain their favor and support.

This taste was not without its inconveniences and dangers. Men of rank
and political importance kept _families_, as they were called, of
gladiators--desperadoes ready to execute any command of their master;
and towards the fall of the republic, when party rage scrupled not to
have recourse to open violence, questions of the highest import were
debated in the streets of the city by the most despised of its slaves.
In the conspiracy of Catiline so much danger was apprehended from
them, that particular measures were taken to prevent their joining the
disaffected party; an event the more to be feared because of the
desperate war in which they had engaged the republic a few years
before, under the command of the celebrated Spartacus. At a much later
period, at the triumph of Probus, A.D. 281, about fourscore gladiators
exhibited a similar courage. Disdaining to shed their blood for the
amusement of a cruel people, they killed their keepers, broke out from
the place of their confinement, and filled the streets of Rome with
blood and confusion. After an obstinate resistance they were cut to
pieces by the regular troops.

The oath which they took upon entering the service is preserved by
Petronius, and is couched in these terms: "We swear, after the
dictation of Eumolpus, to suffer death by fire, bonds, stripes, and
the sword; and whatever else Eumolpus may command, as true gladiators
we bind ourselves body and mind to our master's service."

From slaves and freedmen the inhuman sport at length spread to persons
of rank and fortune, insomuch that Augustus was obliged to issue an
edict, that none of senatorial rank should become gladiators; and soon
after he laid a similar restraint on the knights.

Succeeding emperors, according to their characters, encouraged or
endeavored to suppress this degrading taste. Nero is related to have
brought upwards of four hundred senators and six hundred knights upon
the arena; and in some of his exhibit