150 IV. His igno rance and low sports. CHA P. had recourfe to violence. The ancient 29 hif torians have expatiated on these abandoned fcenes of proftitution, which fcorned every reftraint of nature or modefty; but it would not be eafy to tranflate their too faithful defcriptions into the decency of modern language. The intervals of luft were filled up with the bafeft amufements. The influence of a polite age, and the labour of an attentive education, had never been able to infufe into his rude and brutish mind the leaft tincture of learning; and he was the first of the Roman emperors totally devoid of taste for the pleasures of the understanding. Nero himself excelled, or affected to excel, in the elegant arts of mufic and poetry; nor fhould we defpife his pursuits, had he not converted the pleafing relaxation of a leisure hour into the ferious bufinefs and ambition of his life. But Commodus, from his earlieft infancy, discovered an averfion to whatever was rational or liberal, and a fond attachment to the amufements of the populace; the fports of the circus and amphitheatre, the combats of gladiators, and the hunting of wild beafts. The masters in every branch of learning, whom Marcus provided for his fon, were heard with inattention and difguft; whilft the Moors and Parthians, who taught him to dart the javelin and to fhoot with the bow, found a difciple who delighted in his application, and foon equalled 29 Sororibus fuis conftupratis. Ipfas concubinas fuas fub oculis fuis ftuprari jubebat. Nec irruentium in fe juvenum carebat infamiâ, omni parte corporis atque ore in fexum utrumque pollutus. Hift. Aug. p. 47. the the moft skilful of his inftructors, in the fteadi- CHA P. ness of the eye, and the dexterity of the hand. IV. beafts. The fervile crowd, whofe fortune depended Hunting on their master's vices, applauded thefe ignoble of wild purfuits. The perfidious voice of flattery reminded him, that by exploits of the fame nature, by the defeat of the Nemean lion, and the flaughter of the wild boar of Erymanthus, the Grecian Hercules had acquired a place among the gods, and an immortal memory among men. They only forgot to obferve, that, in the first ages of fociety, when the fiercer animals often difpute with man the poffeffion of an unsettled country, a fuccessful war against thofe favages is one of the most innocent and beneficial labours of heroifm. In the civilized ftate of the Roman empire, the wild beafts had long fince retired from the face of man, and the neighbourhood of populous cities. To furprise them in their folitary haunts, and to transport them to Rome, that they might be flain in pomp by the hand of an emperor, was an enterprife equally ridiculous for the prince, and oppreffive for the people ". Ignorant of these distinctions, Commodus eagerly embraced the glorious resemblance, and ftyled himself (as we 30 30 The African lions, when preffed by hunger, infested the open villages and cultivated country; and they infefted them with impunity. The royal beast was referved for the pleasures of the emperor and the capital; and the unfortunate peasant who killed one of them, though in his own defence, incurred a very heavy penalty. This extraordinary game-law was mitigated by Honorius, and finally repealed by Juftinian. Codex Theodof. tom. v. p. 92, et Comment. Gothofred. IV. CHAP. ftill read on his medals ") the Roman Hercules. The club and the lion's hide were placed by the fide of the throne, amongst the enfigns of fovereignty; and ftatues were erected, in which Commodus was reprefented in the character, and with the attributes of the god, whose valour and dexterity he endeavoured to emulate in the daily courfe of his ferocious amusements 32, Commodus dif plays his fkill in the amphitheatre. Elated with thefe praifes, which gradually extinguifhed the innate fenfe of flame, Commodus refolved to exhibit, before the eyes of the Roman people, thofe exercifes, which till then he had decently confined within the walls of his palace, and to the prefence of a few favourites. On the appointed day, the various motives of flattery, fear, and curiofity, attracted to the amphitheatre an innumerable multitude of spectators; and fome degree of applaufe was defervedly bestowed on the uncommon fkill of the Imperial performer. Whether he aimed at the head or heart of the animal, the wound was alike certain and mortal. With arrows whofe point was fhaped into the form of a crefcent, Commodus often intercepted the rapid career, and cut afunder the long bony neck of the oftrich 3. A panther was let loofe; and the archer waited till he had leaped upon a trembling malefactor. In the fame inftant the shaft flew, the beast dropt dead, and the man remained unhurt. The dens of the 31 Spanheim de Numifmat. Differtat. xii. tom. ii. p. 493. 33 The oftrich's neck is three feet long, and composed of seventeen vertebræ. See Buffon, Hift. Naturelle. JV. amphitheatre difgorged at once a hundred lions; CHA P. a hundred darts from the unerring hand of Commodus laid them dead as they ran raging round the Arena. Neither the huge bulk of the elephant, nor the fcaly hide of the rhinoceros, could defend them from his ftroke. Ethiopia and India yielded their moft extraordinary productions; and feveral animals were flain in the amphitheatre, which had been feen only in the representations of art, or perhaps of fancy 34. In all these exhibitions, the fecureft precautions were used to protect the person of the Roman Hercules from the defperate fpring of any vage; who might poffibly difregard the dignity of the Emperor, and the fanctity of the god3. fa But the meaneft of the populace were affected Acts as a with fhame and indignation when they beheld gladiator. their fovereign enter the lifts as a gladiator, and glory in a profeffion which the laws and manners of the Romans had branded with the justest note of infamy 36. He chofe the habit and arms of the Secutor, whofe combat with the Retiarius 3+ Commodus killed a camelopardalis or Giraffe (Dion, 1. Ixxii. p. 1211.), the tallest, the moft gentle, and the most useless of the large quadrupeds. This fingular animal, a native only of the interior parts of Africa, has not been seen in Europe fince the revival of letters; and though M. de Buffon (Hift. Naturelle, tom. xiii.) has endeavoured to defcribe, he has not ventured to delineate, the Graffe. 35 Herodian, l. i. p. 37. Hift. Auguft. p. 50. 35 The virtuous and even the wise princes forbade the senators and knights to embrace this fcandalous profeffion, under pain of infamy, or what was more dreaded by those profligate wretches, of exile. The tyrants allured them to dishonour by threats and rewards. Nero once produced, in the Arena, forty fenators and fixty knights. See Lipfius, Saturnalia, l. ii. c. 2. He has happily corrected a paffage of Suetonius in Nerone, c. 12. formed IV. CHA P. formed one of the moft lively fcenes in the bloody fports of the amphitheatre. The Secutor was armed with an helmet, fword, and buckler; his naked antagonist had only a large net and a trident; with the one he endeavoured to entangle, with the other to dispatch, his enemy. If he miffed the first throw, he was obliged to fly from the pursuit of the Secutor, till he had prepared his net for a fecond caft. The Emperor fought in this character feven hundred and thirty-five feveral times. Thefe glorious atchievements were carefully recorded in the public acts of the empire; and that he might omit no circumftance of infamy, he received from the common fund of gladiators, a ftipend fo exorbitant, that it became a new and most ignominious tax upon the Roman people. It may be easily supposed, that in thefe engagements the mafter of the world was always fuccefsful: in the amphitheatre his victories were not often fanguinary; but when he exercised his skill in the school of gladiators, or his own palace, his wretched antagonists were frequently honoured with a mortal wound from the hand of Commodus, and obliged to His infamy feal their flattery with their blood 39. He now and extra- difdained the appellation of Hercules. The name of Paulus, a celebrated Secutor, was vagance. 37 Lipfius, 1. ii. c. 7, 8. Juvenal, in the eighth fatire, gives a picturesque description of this combat. 38 Hift. Auguft. p. 50. Dion, 1. lxxii. p. 1220. He received for each time, decies, about 8000l. fterling. 39 Victor tells us, that Commodus only allowed his antagonists a leaden weapon, dreading most probably the confequences of their despair. the |