Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 1.djvu/431

 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 407 ^^ ledged that the reign of Carinus had indeed been a CHAP, reign of pleasure". But this vain prodigaHty, which the prudence of Diocletian might justly despise, was enjoyed with surprise and transport by the Roman people. The oldest of the citizens, recollecting the spectacles of former days, the triumphal pomp of Pro- bus or Aurehan, and the secular games of the emperor Philip, acknowledged that they were all surpassed by the superior magnificence of Carinus p. The spectacles of Carinus may therefore be best Spectacles illustrated by the observation of some particulars, °^ '^o"'®- which history has condescended to relate concerning those of his predecessors. If we confine ourselves solely to the hunting of wild beasts, however we may censure the vanity of the design or the cruelty of the execution, we are obUged to confess, that neither be- fore nor since the time of the Romans, so much art and expense have ever been lavished for the amuse- ment of the people ^. By the order of Probus, a great quantity of large trees, torn up by the roots, were transplanted into the midst of the circus. The spa- cious and shady forest was immediately filled with a thousand ostriches, a thousand stags, a thousand fal- low deer, and a thousand wild boars ; and all this va- riety of game was abandoned to the riotous impetuosity of the multitude. The tragedy of the succeeding day consisted in the massacre of an hundred lions, an equal number of lionesses, two hundred leopards, and three hundred bears The collection prepared by the younger Gordian for his triumph, and which his suc- cessor exhibited in the secular games, was less remark- able by the number than by the singularity of the animals. Twenty zebras displayed their elegant forms and variegated beauty to the eyes of the Roman peo- ° Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 254. He calls him Carus ; but the sense is sufficiently obvious, and the words were often confounded. V See Calphurnius, Eclog. vii. 43. We may observe, that the spectacles of Probus were siill recent, and that the poet is seconded by the historian. 1 The philosopher Montaigne (Essais, 1. iii. 6.) gives a very just and lively view of Roman magnificence in these spectacles. ' Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 240.