[3] The formula “to devote his head to the gods,” used to express the sentence of capital punishment, was derived from the human sacrifices anciently used in Rome; probably, because criminals were usually selected for these sanguinary offerings.

[4] The lands absolutely assigned to the plebeians free from rent, were the most remarkable species of Quiritary property.  It was so called from the Quirites, who formed a constituent part of the Roman people, and whose name was subsequently given to the entire.

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CHAPTER IX.

THE PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS AND PRIVATE LIFE OF THE ROMANS.

Butchered to make a Roman holiday.—­Byron.

The inferiority of the Romans to the Greeks in intellectual acquirements, was no where more conspicuous than in their public amusements.  While the refined Grecians sought to gratify their taste by music, the fine arts, and dramatic entertainments, the Romans derived their chief pleasure from contemplating the brutal and bloody fights of gladiators; or at best, such rich shows and processions as gratify the uneducated vulgar.  The games in the circus, with which the Romans were so delighted, that they considered them of equal importance, with the necessaries of life, consisted of athletic exercises, such as boxing, racing, wrestling, and gladiatorial combats.  To these, chariot-racing was added under the emperors, and exhibitions of combats between wild beasts, and, in numerous instances, between men and beasts.

2.  After the establishment of the naval power of Rome, naumachiae, or naval combats, were frequently exhibited in circi built for the purpose.  These were not always sham fights; the contests were, in many instances, real engagements displaying all the horrors of a sanguinary battle.

3.  The custom of exhibiting shows of gladiators, originated in the barbarous sacrifices of human beings, which prevailed in remote ages.  In the gloomy superstition of the Romans, it was believed that the manes, or shades of the dead, derived pleasure from human blood, and they therefore sacrificed, at the tombs of their ancestors, captives taken in war, or wretched slaves.  It was soon found that sport to the living might be combined with this horrible offering to the dead; and instead of giving up the miserable victims to the executioner, they were compelled to fight with each other, until the greater part was exterminated.

4.  The pleasure that the people derived from this execrable amusement, induced the candidates for office to gratify, them frequently with this spectacle.  The exhibitions were no longer confined to funerals; they formed an integrant part of every election, and were found more powerful than merit in opening a way to office.  The utter demoralization of the Roman people, and the facility with which the tyranny of the emperors was established, unquestionably was owing, in a great degree to the pernicious prevalence of these scandalous exhibitions.