5.  To supply the people with gladiators, schools were, established in various parts of Italy, each under the controul of a lanis’ta, or fencing-master, who instructed them in martial exercises.  The victims were either prisoners of war, or refractory slaves, sold by their masters; but in the degenerate ages of the empire, freemen, and even senators, ventured their lives on the stage along with the regular gladiators.  Under the mild and merciful influence of Christianity these combats were abolished, and human blood was no longer shed to gratify a cruel and sanguinary populace.

6.  So numerous were the gladiators, that Spar’tacus, one of their number, having escaped from a school, raised an army of his fellow-sufferers, amounting to seventy thousand men; he was finally subdued by Cras’sus, the colleague of Pompey.  Ju’lius Caesar, during his aedileship, exhibited at one time three hundred and twenty pairs of gladiators; but even this was surpassed by the emperor Trajan, who displayed no less than one thousand.

7.  The gladiators were named from their peculiar arms; the most common were the retiarius, who endeavoured to hamper his antagonist with a net; and his opponent the secutor.

8.  When a gladiator was wounded, or in any way disabled, he fled to the extremity of the stage, and implored the pity of the spectators; if he had shown good sport, they took him under their protection by pressing down their thumbs; but if he had been found deficient in courage or activity, they held the thumb back, and he was instantly murdered by his adversary.

9.  The Roman theatre was formed after the model of the Greeks, but never attained equal eminence.  The populace always paid more regard to the dresses of the actors, and the richness of the decoration, than to ingenious structure of plot, or elegance of language.  Scenic representations do not appear to have been very popular at Rome, certainly never so much as the sports of the circus.  Besides comedies and tragedies, the Romans had a species of drama peculiar to their country, called the Atellane farces, which were, in general, low pieces of gross indecency and vulgar buffoonery, but sometimes contained spirited satires on the character and conduct of public men.

10.  We should be greatly mistaken if we supposed that the theatres in ancient Rome at all resembled those of modern times; they were stupendous edifices, some of which could accommodate thirty thousand spectators, and an army could perform its evolutions on the stage.  To remedy the defects of distance, the tragic actors wore a buskin with very thick soles, to raise them above their natural size, and covered their faces with a mask so contrived as to render the voice more clear and full.[1] Instead of the buskin, comic actors wore a sort of slipper called a sock.

11.  The periodical festivals of the Romans were celebrated with theatrical entertainments and sports in the circus at the public expense.  The most remarkable of these festivals was the secular, which occurred only at periods of one hundred and ten years.  The others occurred annually, and were named from the gods to whose honour they were dedicated.