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32 athlete into the gladiator. The gladiatorial shows of the emperors were sign enough that a cruel and abominable power was preparing for its own destruction.

The first gladiatorial shows were exhibited in the Forum Boarium, 264 B.C., by Marcus and Decimus Brutus, at the funeral of their father. This was an evident survival of the still more ancient custom of sacrificing slaves and prisoners on the graves of illustrious chieftains. Only three pairs fought on this occasion; but the taste grew like fire for these shows, and the number of combatants increased rapidly. Titus Flaminius, in 174 B.C., celebrated his father's obsequies by a three-days' fight with seventy-four gladiators. Julius Cæesar exhibited three hundred pairs in one show; and during the later years of the republic the gladiators had grown so powerful, every nobleman employing a body-guard of them, that they kept the city in a state of constant peril and unrest.

Under the empire, notwithstanding prohibitory laws, the passion for the gladiatorial shows steadily increased. One hundred pairs was the fashionable number for a private entertainment. It was a debauch of blood and cruelty. The vile Claudius would sit in his chair of state from morning till night, watching the bloody work.