[Sidenote:—­18—­] On the first day he individually killed a hundred bears by shooting down at them from the top of the elevated circle.  The whole theatre had been divided up by some diameters built in, which supported a circular roof and intersected each other, the object being that the beasts, divided into four herds, might be more easily speared at short range from any point.  In the midst of the struggle he grew weary, and taking from a woman some sweet wine cooled in a club-shaped cup drank it down at a gulp.  At this both the populace and we on the instant all shouted this phrase, common at drinking bouts:  “Long life to you!”

Let no one think that I sully the dignity of history in noting down such happenings.  In general I should have preferred not to mention it, but since it was one of the emperor’s acts and I was myself present, taking part in everything seen and heard and spoken, I have judged it proper to suppress none of the details, but to hand them down to the attention of those who shall live hereafter, just as I should do in the case of anything else especially great and important.  And, indeed, all the remaining events that took place in my lifetime I shall polish and elaborate more than earlier occurrences for the reason that my evidence is that of a contemporary and I know no one else who has my ability at reducing notable things to writing that has studied them so exhaustively as I.

[Sidenote:—­19—­] It was on the first day, then, that this took place.  On the others he frequently went down from the raised section to the bottom of the circle and slaughtered all the tame animals that he approached, some of them also being led to him or brought before him in nets.  He also killed a tiger, a hippopotamus, and an elephant.  After accomplishing this, he retired, but at the conclusion of breakfast fought again as a gladiator.  The form of fighting which he practiced and the armor which he used was that pertaining to the so-called secutor: in his right hand he held the shield and in his left the wooden sword.  He prided himself very greatly upon being left-handed.  His antagonist would be some professional athlete, or, perhaps, gladiator, with a cane; this was sometimes a man that the emperor himself challenged and sometimes one that the people chose.  In this and other matters he acted the same way as the other gladiators, except that they go in for a very small sum, whereas Commodus had twenty-five myriads from the gladiatorial fund given him each day.  There stood beside him during the contest Aemilius Laetus, the prefect, and Eclectus, his cubicularius.  He went through a skirmish, and, of course, conquered, and then, just as he was, he kissed them [Footnote:  Supplying [Greek:  ois] (after Reimar).] with his helmet on.  After this the rest did some fighting.—­The first day he personally paired all the combatants, either down below, where he wore all the attire of Mercury, including a gilded wand, or else from his