weather. But the present day was so remarkably still that there seemed
to the spectators no excuse for the awkwardness of the artificers; and
when a large gap in the back of the awning was still visible, from the
obstinate refusal of one part of the velaria to ally itself with the
rest, the murmurs of discontent were loud and general.
The aedile Pansa, at whose expense the exhibition was given, looked
particularly annoyed at the defect, and, vowed bitter vengeance on the
head of the chief officer of the show, who, fretting, puffing,
perspiring, busied himself in idle orders and unavailing threats.
The hubbub ceased suddenly--the operators desisted--the crowd were
stilled--the gap was forgotten--for now, with a loud and warlike
flourish of trumpets, the gladiators, marshalled in ceremonious
procession, entered the arena. They swept round the oval space very
slowly and deliberately, in order to give the spectators full leisure to
admire their stern serenity of feature--their brawny limbs and various
arms, as well as to form such wagers as the excitement of the moment
might suggest.
'Oh!' cried the widow Fulvia to the wife of Pansa, as they leaned down
from their lofty bench, 'do you see that gigantic gladiator? how drolly
he is dressed!'
'Yes,' said the aedile's wife, with complacent importance, for she knew
all the names and qualities of each combatant; 'he is a retiarius or
netter; he is armed only, you see, with a three-pronged spear like a
trident, and a net; he wears no armor, only the fillet and the tunic.
He is a mighty man, and is to fight with Sporus, yon thick-set
gladiator, with the round shield and drawn sword, but without body
armor; he has not his helmet on now, in order that you may see his
face--how fearless it is!--by-and-by he will fight with his vizor down.'
'But surely a net and a spear are poor arms against a shield and sword?'
'That shows how innocent you are, my dear Fulvia; the retiarius has
generally the best of it.'
'But who is yon handsome gladiator, nearly naked--is it not quite
improper? By Venus! but his limbs are beautifully shaped!'
'It is Lydon, a young untried man! he has the rashness to fight yon
other gladiator similarly dressed, or rather undressed--Tetraides. They
fight first in the Greek fashion, with the cestus; afterwards they put
on armor, and try sword and shield.'
'He is a proper man, this Lydon; and the women, I am sure, are on his
side.'
'So are not the experienced betters; Clodius offers three to one against
him!'
'Oh, Jove! how beautiful!' exclaimed the widow, as two gladiators, armed
cap-a-pie, rode round the arena on light and prancing steeds. Resembling
much the combatants in the tilts of the middle age, they bore lances and
round shields beautifully inlaid: their armor was woven intricately with
bands of iron, but it covered only the thighs and the right arms; short
cloaks, extending to the seat, gave a picturesque and graceful air to
their costume; their legs were naked, with the exception of sandals,
which were fastened a little above the ankle. 'Oh, beautiful! Who are
these?' asked the widow.
'The one is named Berbix--he has conquered twelve times; the other
assumes the arrogant name of Nobilior. They are both Gauls.'
While thus conversing, the first formalities of the show were over. To
these succeeded a feigned combat with wooden swords between the various
gladiators matched against each other. Amongst these, the skill of two
Roman gladiators, hired for the occasion, was the most admired; and next
to them the most graceful combatant was Lydon. This sham contest did
not last above an hour, nor did it attract any very lively interest,
except among those connoisseurs of the arena to whom art was preferable
to more coarse excitement; the body of the spectators were rejoiced when
it was over, and when the sympathy rose to terror. The combatants were
now arranged in pairs, as agreed beforehand; their weapons examined; and
the grave sports of the day commenced amidst the deepest silence--broken
only by an exciting and preliminary blast of warlike music.
It was often customary to begin the sports by the most cruel of all, and
some bestiarius, or gladiator appointed to the beasts, was slain first,
as an initiatory sacrifice. But in the present instance, the
experienced Pansa thought it better that the sanguinary drama should
advance, not decrease, in interest and, accordingly, the execution of
Olinthus and Glaucus was reserved for the last. It was arranged that
the two horsemen should first occupy the arena; that the foot
gladiators, paired Off, should then be loosed indiscriminately on the
stage; that Glaucus and the lion should next perform their part in the
bloody spectacle; and the tiger and the Nazarene be the grand finale.
And, in the spectacles of Pompeii, the reader of Roman history must
limit his imagination, nor expect to find those vast and wholesale
exhibitions of magnificent slaughter with which a Nero or a Caligula
regaled the inhabitants of the Imperial City. The Roman shows, which
absorbed the more celebrated gladiators, and the chief proportion of
foreign beasts, were indeed the very reason why, in the lesser towns of
the empire, the sports of the amphitheatre were comparatively humane and
rare; and in this, as in other respects, Pompeii was but the miniature,
the microcosm of Rome. Still, it was an awful and imposing spectacle,
with which modern times have, happily, nothing to compare--a vast
theatre, rising row upon row, and swarming with human beings, from
fifteen to eighteen thousand in number, intent upon no fictitious
representation--no tragedy of the stage--but the actual victory or
defeat, the exultant life or the bloody death, of each and all who
entered the arena!
The two horsemen were now at either extremity of the lists (if so they
might be called); and, at a given signal from Pansa, the combatants
started simultaneously as in full collision, each advancing his round
buckler, each poising on high his light yet sturdy javelin; but just
when within three paces of his opponent, the steed of Berbix suddenly
halted, wheeled round, and, as Nobilior was borne rapidly by, his
antagonist spurred upon him. The buckler of Nobilior, quickly and
skillfully extended, received a blow which otherwise would have been
fatal.
'Well done, Nobilior!' cried the praetor, giving the first vent to the
popular excitement.
'Bravely struck, my Berbix!' answered Clodius from his seat.
And the wild murmur, swelled by many a shout, echoed from side to side.
The vizors of both the horsemen were completely closed (like those of
the knights in after times), but the head was, nevertheless, the great
point of assault; and Nobilior, now wheeling his charger with no less
adroitness than his opponent, directed his spear full on the helmet of
his foe. Berbix raised his buckler to shield himself, and his
quick-eyed antagonist, suddenly lowering his weapon, pierced him through
the breast. Berbix reeled and fell.
'Nobilior! Nobilior!' shouted the populace.
'I have lost ten sestertia,' said Clodius, between his teeth.
'Habet!--he has it,' said Pansa, deliberately.
The populace, not yet hardened into cruelty, made the signal of mercy;
but as the attendants of the arena approached, they found the kindness
came too late--the heart of the Gaul had been pierced, and his eyes were
set in death. It was his life's blood that flowed so darkly over the
sand and sawdust of the arena.
'It is a pity it was so soon over--there was little enough for one's
trouble,' said the widow Fulvia.
'Yes--I have no compassion for Berbix. Any one might have seen that
Nobilior did but feint. Mark, they fix the fatal hook to the body--they
drag him away to the spoliarium--they scatter new sand over the stage!
Pansa regrets nothing more than that he is not rich enough to strew the
arena with borax and cinnabar, as Nero used to do.'
'Well, if it has been a brief battle, it is quickly succeeded. See my
handsome Lydon on the arena--ay--and the net-bearer too, and the
swordsmen! oh, charming!'
There were now on the arena six combatants: Niger and his net, matched
against Sporus with his shield and his short broadsword; Lydon and
Tetraides, naked save by a cincture round the waist, each armed only
with a heavy Greek cestus--and two gladiators from Rome, clad in
complete steel, and evenly matched with immense bucklers and pointed
swords.
The initiatory contest between Lydon and Tetraides being less deadly
than that between the other combatants, no sooner had they advanced to
the middle of the arena than, as by common consent, the rest held back,
to see how that contest should be decided, and wait till fiercer weapons
might replace the cestus, ere they themselves commenced hostilities.
They stood leaning on their arms and apart from each other, gazing on
the show, which, if not bloody enough, thoroughly to please the
populace, they were still inclined to admire, because its origin was of
their ancestral Greece.
No person could, at first glance, have seemed less evenly matched than
the two antagonists. Tetraides, though not taller than Lydon, weighed
considerably more; the natural size of his muscles was increased, to the
eyes of the vulgar, by masses of solid flesh; for, as it was a notion
that the contest of the cestus fared easiest with him who was plumpest,
Tetraides had encouraged to the utmost his hereditary predisposition to
the portly. His shoulders were vast, and his lower limbs thick-set,
double-jointed, and slightly curved outward, in that formation which
takes so much from beauty to give so largely to strength. But Lydon,
except that he was slender even almost to meagreness, was beautifully
and delicately proportioned; and the skilful might have perceived that,
with much less compass of muscle than his foe, that which he had was
more seasoned--iron and compact. In proportion, too, as he wanted
flesh, he was likely to possess activity; and a haughty smile on his
resolute face which strongly contrasted the solid heaviness of his
enemy's, gave assurance to those who beheld it, and united their hope to
their pity: so that, despite the disparity of their seeming strength,
the cry of the multitude was nearly as loud for Lydon as for Tetraides.
Whoever is acquainted with the modern prize-ring--whoever has witnessed
the heavy and disabling strokes which the human fist, skillfully
directed, hath the power to bestow--may easily understand how much that
happy facility would be increased by a band carried by thongs of leather
round the arm as high as the elbow, and terribly strengthened about the
knuckles by a plate of iron, and sometimes a plummet of lead. Yet this,
which was meant to increase, perhaps rather diminished, the interest of
the fray: for it necessarily shortened its duration. A very few blows,
successfully and scientifically planted, might suffice to bring the
contest to a close; and the battle did not, therefore, often allow full
scope for the energy, fortitude and dogged perseverance, that we
technically style pluck, which not unusually wins the day against
superior science, and which heightens to so painful a delight the
interest in the battle and the sympathy for the brave.
'Guard thyself!' growled Tetraides, moving nearer and nearer to his foe,
who rather shifted round him than receded.
Lydon did not answer, save by a scornful glance of his quick, vigilant
eye. Tetraides struck--it was as the blow of a smith on a vice; Lydon
sank suddenly on one knee--the blow passed over his head. Not so
harmless was Lydon's retaliation: he quickly sprung to his feet, and
aimed his cestus full on the broad breast of his antagonist. Tetraides
reeled--the populace shouted.
'You are unlucky to-day,' said Lepidus to Clodius: 'you have lost one
bet----you will lose another.'
'By the gods! my bronzes go to the auctioneer if that is the case. I
have no less than a hundred sestertia upon Tetraides. Ha, ha! see how
he rallies! That was a home stroke: he has cut open Lydon's shoulder. A
Tetraides!--a Tetraides!'
'But Lydon is not disheartened. By Pollux! how well he keeps his
temper. See how dexterously he avoids those hammer-like hands!--dodging
now here, now there--circling round and round. Ah, poor Lydon! he has
it again.'
'Three to one still on Tetraides! What say you, Lepidus?'
'Well, nine sestertia to three--be it so! What! again, Lydon? He
stops--he gasps for breath. By the gods, he is down. No--he is again
on his legs. Brave Lydon! Tetraides is encouraged--he laughs loud--he
rushes on him.'
'Fool--success blinds him--he should be cautious. Lydon's eye is like
the lynx's,' said Clodius, between his teeth.
'Ha, Clodius! saw you that? Your man totters! Another blow--he
falls--he falls!'
'Earth revives him, then. He is once more up; but the blood rolls down
his face.'
'By the thunderer! Lydon wins it. See how he presses on him! That blow
on the temple would have crushed an ox! it has crushed Tetraides. He
falls again--he cannot move--habet!--habet!'
'Habet!' repeated Pansa. 'Take them out and give them the armor and
swords.'
'Noble editor,' said the officers, 'we fear that Tetraides will not
recover in time; howbeit, we will try.'
'Do so.'
In a few minutes the officers, who had dragged off the stunned and
insensible gladiator, returned with rueful countenances. They feared
for his life; he was utterly incapacitated from re-entering the arena.
'In that case,' said Pansa, 'hold Lydon a subdititius; and the first
gladiator that is vanquished, let Lydon supply his place with the
victor.' The people shouted their applause at this sentence: then they
