either by the movement of the limbs or the flow of blood, they claimed to divine the future. Likewise, the Gauls of old, when afflicted by serious diseases or dangers, would either sacrifice men to appease the gods or vow that they would soon do so. The Cimbri consecrated men to their own gods as sacrificial victims by fixing them to stakes in sacred springs. The Albanians would burn at their altars, along with other victims, a man who had been initiated into their sacred rites, proven in holiness, and expensively fattened for the purpose. To ward off the anger of the gods, the Leucadians would cast a man headlong into the sea from the summit of a mountain. The Senones, after slaying a man on certain fixed days, celebrated unspeakable sacrifices, believing that in this way all their sins could be expiated. The Persians, to offer thanks to the gods, buried young men in the earth while they were still breathing. Among the Britons, an ancient custom took root where daughters-in-law and wives, naked and stained with the juice of certain herbs, would offer supplications in the temple and sacrifice the blood of captives to the gods.

But why do we wander through ancient rites? We read in the histories of the "Carolina" island, recently found by the Spaniards as they traveled the globe, that bronze statues of their gods, hollow inside, are frequently seen there. During the time of sacrifice, boys were shut inside these statues and burned as an offering to the gods by a fire placed beneath. For this reason, we should not be amazed to read in the Sacred Scriptures: "They have committed all the abominations which the Lord hates, offering their sons and daughters to their gods and consuming them with fire." Interpreters of these texts pass down the tradition that those idols were cast from Cypriot bronze and other metals. To the aforementioned, let us add as a finishing touch the rite of the Mexicans, who slaughtered men and women in their temples before the statues of the gods; moreover, their priests, taking up sharpened reeds, would wound various parts of their own bodies and offer the flowing blood to their deities.

# USE IN SPECTACLES

This heading shares a great deal with the previous one: for if in that case men were slaughtered at altars before bystanders, similarly here men are torn apart by wild beasts before the public. According to ancient custom, the Romans used to practice three kinds of spectacles. In the first, beasts fought with beasts; in the second, men fought with men; and in the third, men fought with wild animals. Pliny confirms this when he notes that elephants fought against bulls in the Circus during the curule aedileship of Claudius Pulcher. Regarding the second kind, he wrote: "In a naval battle on the Caelian hill, in a dug lake, biremes, triremes, and quadremes of the Lyrian and Egyptian fleets clashed with a great number of combatants." So many people converged from everywhere to see these spectacles that many visitors stayed in tents pitched in the streets, and often, because of the crush of the crowd, several were smothered to death. Of the third kind of spectacle, he reported that during the curule aedileship of Domitius Ahenobarbus, a hundred Numidian bears and as many Ethiopian hunters fought in the Circus with a great slaughter of men.

Therefore Cassiodorus, who saw and wrote about these things, detested this kind of contest as horrific and wretched. He marveled that men could be found so bold that, relying on nothing but the single hope of deceiving the animal, they were willing to contend with wild beasts. Those who did not escape the beast sometimes could not even find a burial, as their corpses were most savagely consumed by the animals.

Yet, according to the same Cassiodorus, there were some greedy men who held their very blood for sale. These men would enter the theater armed only with a pole to face a bear or a lion—beasts specifically starved for the purpose. Using the flexible support of the wood, they would vault over the beast as it rushed at them. The animal, as if overcome by a certain shame at being outmaneuvered, would thereafter neglect to attack its victors further. Others, for the sake of engaging in combat with beasts, armed themselves with a shield woven from reeds (for which they had contracted with the sponsors) and entered the spectacle happily. When the beast was released from its cage against them, they would immediately prostrate themselves on the ground, covered by the reed wrapping. This deterred the beast, which did not dare to attack them again; thus, as Cassiodorus relates, the weak protection of the reeds saved these men, much like the spines of a hedgehog gathered into a ball. Others, using a slipping wheel to avoid the beasts rush-