in the first class we read of tatooed Britons in their war chariots, Thracians with their peculiar bucklers and scimi- tars, Moors from the villages round Atlas, and negroes from central Africa, exhibited in the Colosseum. Down to the time of the empire only greater malefactors, such as brigands and incendiaries, were condemned to the arena; but by Caligula, Claudius, and Nero this punishment was extended to minor offences, such as fraud and peculation, in order to supply the growing demand for victims. For the first century of the empire it was lawful for masters to sell their slaves as gladiators, but this was forbidden by Hadrian and Marcus Aurelius. Besides these three regular classes, the ranks were recruited by a considerable number of freedmen and Roman citizens who had squandered their estates, and voluntarily took the auctoramentum gladiatorz'um, by which for a stated time they bound themselves to the (waste. Even men of birth and fortune not seldom entered the lists, either for the pure love of fighting, or to gratifythe whim of some dissolute emperor; and one emperor,
Commodus, actually appeared in person in the arena.Gladiators were trained in schools (ludi) owned either by the state or by private citizens ; and though the trade of a lanista was considered disgraceful, to own gladiators and let them out for hire was reckoned a legitimate branch of commerce. Thus Cicero, in his letters to Atticus, congratu- lates his friend on the good bargain he had made in pul‘-« chasing a band, and urges that he might easily recoup him- self by consenting to let them out twice. Men recruited mainly from slaves and criminals, whose lives hung on a thread, must have been more dangerous characters than modern galley slaves or convicts; and, though highly fed and carefully tended, they were of necessity subject to an iron discipline. In the school of gladiators discovered at l’ompeii, of the sixty—three skeletons buried in the cells many were in irons. But hard as was the gladiator’s lot, —so hard that special precautions had to be taken to prevent suicide,——it had its consolations. A successful gladiator en- joyed far greater fame than any modern prize-fighter or athlete. He was presented with broad pieces, chains, and jewelled helmets, such as may be seen in the museum at Naples; poets like Martial sang his prowess; his portrait ‘was multiplied on vases, lamps, and gems; and high—born ladies contended for his favours. Mixed, too, with the lowest dregs of the city, there must have been many noble bar- barians condemned to the vile trade by the hard fate of war. There are few finer characters in Roman history than the Thracian Spartacus, who, escaping with seventy of his com- rades from the school of Lentnlus at Capua, for three years defied the legions of Home; and after Antony’s defeat at Actium, the only part of his army that remained faithful to his cause were the gladiators whom he had enrolled at Cyzicus to grace his anticipated victory.
There were various classes of gladiators, distinguished by their arms or modes of fighting. The Samnitcs fought with the national weapons—a large oblong shield, at vizard, a plumed helmet, and a short sword. The Thraces had a small round buckler and a dagger carved like a scythe; they were generally pitted against the Mirmillones, so called from the fish (flopping) which served as the crest of their helmet. In like manner the tetiarius was matched with the Secutor: the former had nothing on but a short tunic or apron, and sought to entangle his pursuer, who was fully armed, with the cast-net (jurulmn) that he carried in his right hand ; and if successful, he despatched him with the trident (lrirlens, fusrina) that he carried in his left. We may also mention the Andabatae, who wore helmets with closed vizors; the Dimachzcri of the later empire; the Essed-irii, who fought from chariots like the ancient Britons; the Hoplomachi, armed like a Greek hoplite; and the Laqueatores, who tried to lasso their antagonists.
The estimation in which gladiatorial games were held by Roman moralists deserves notice, and the influence that they exercised upon the morals and genius of the nation. The Roman was essentially cruel, not so much from spite or viiulictivencss, as from callousness and defective sympathies. This element of inhumanity and brutality must have been deeply ingrained in the national character to have allowed the games to become popular, but there can be no doubt that it was fed and fostered by the savage form which their amusements took. That the sight of bloodshed provokes a love of bloodshed and cruelty is a commonplace of morals. To the horrors of the arena we may attribute in part, not only the brutal treatment of their slaves and prisoners, but the frequency of suicide among the Romans. 0n the other hand, we should be careful not to exaggerate the effects or draw too sweeping infer- ences from the prevalence of this degrading amusement. lluman nature is happily illogical ; and we know that many of the Roman statesmen who gave these games, and themselves enjoyed these sights of blood, were in every other department of life irreproachable,—indulgcnt fathers, humane generals, and mild rulers of provinces. In the present state of society it is diflicult to conceive how a man of taste can have endured to gaze upon a seene of human butchery. Yet we should remember that it is less than half a century since bear-baiting was prohibited in England, and we are only now attaining that stage of morality in respect of cruelty to animals that was reached in the 5th century, by the help of Christianity, in respect of cruelty to men. “'c shall not then be greatly surprised if hardly one of the lloman moralists is found to raise his voice against this amusement, except on the score of extravagance. Cicero, in a. well—known passage commends the. gladiatorial games as the best discipline against the fear of death and suffering that can be presented to the eye. The younger Pliny, who perhaps of all Romans approaches nearest to our itlrall of a cultured gentleman, speaks approvineg of them. Marcus Aurelius, though he did much to mitigate their horrors, yet in his writings condemns the monotony rather than the cruelty. Seneca is indeed a splendid exception, and his h-tter to Lentulim is an eloquent protest against this inhuman sport. 5ut it is without a parallel till we come to the writings of the Christian fathers, Tcrtullian, Lactantius, Cyprian, and Augustine. In the Confes- sions of the last there occurs a narrative which is worth quoting as a proof of the strange fascination which the games CXEI‘Ci>L‘tl even on a religious man and a Christian. He tells us how his friend Alipins was dragged against his will to the amphitheatre, how he strove to quiet his conscience by cIOsing his eyes, how at sonn- exciting crisis the shouts of the whole assembly aroused his curiosity, 110w he looked and was lost, grew drunk with the sight of blood, and returned again and again, knowing his guilt yet unable to abstain. The first Christian emperor was persuaded to issue an edict abolishing gladiatorial games (325), yet in 404 we read of an exhibition of" gladiators to celebrate the triumph of Honorius over the Goths, and it is said that they were not totally extinct in the \Vcst till the time of Theodoric (see Games).
Gladiators formed admirable models for the Sculptor. One of the finest pieces of ancient sculpture that has come down to us is the \Vounded Gladiator of the National Museum at Naples. The so-callcd Fighting Gladiator of the Borghesc collection, now in the Museum of the Louvre, and the Dying Gladiator of the (.‘apitoline Museum, which inspired the famous stanza of Childc Harold, have been pronounced by modern antiquarics to represent, not gladi- ators, but warriors. In this connexion we may mention the admirable picture of Gérome which bears the title, Ave, Caesar, morituri tc salutant.
The attention of arclncologists has been recently directed to the lrsscrw of gladiators. These tcsscra‘, of which about sixty exist in various museums, are small oblong tablets of ivory or bone, with. an inscription on each of the four sides. The first line contains a name in the nominative case, presumably that of the gladiator; the second line a name in the genitive, that of the patronus or dominus; the third line begins with the letters 81’, for spectalus or approved, which shows that the gladiator had passed his pre- liminary trials; this is followed by a day ofa Roman month ; and in the fourth line are the names of the consuls of a particular year.
Lipsius. Saturaalia, Wcscl, 1675: Fricdliindcr, Darstrlhmgcn aus du' SIT/(m— geschirhte Rains, Leipslc. 1869; II. Goell, Kullurbilder (ms [It-(Ins and Hunt, Leipsic, 1863: Charles Magnin, Les Orig/hues du theatre mwll'rne, Paris, 1838; It. Wallon, [listoire dc l'csclurugp, Paris, 1347; Guhl and Koncr, The Life of the Greeks and Romans; Lccky, Ilzstory of European Murals.
ous plants, belonging to the natural order Iridaccce, and representative of the tribe Gladz'olca', a group of bulbous plants in which the perianth is irregular, and the stamens unilateral and arched, with the filaments free. It belongs to a subdivision of the Gladiolea’, in which the segments of the limb of the perianth are very unequal, and is specially
distinguished by having the perianth tube curved, funnel-