Ancient Romes Animal Cruelty for Entertainment :: essays research papers

The Romans are often characterized as loving violent and cruel entertainment in the amphitheatre. It has been suggested that the games served the twofold purpose of providing entertainment for the people and maintaining the political status quo.In todays society, the killing of humans and animals usually means a jail term, and beholding nearone die is not something people go and see for fun. Violence was glorified in Rome hundreds of years ago. All the crimes they committed were condoned, accepted and glorified. thither were four different genres of such entertainment in the games held in amphitheatres (Amphi-theatres are outdoor arenas. "theatres in the round" Amphi- meaning "round" in Greek.) Gladiatorial combat, the delegacy execution of foreigners, beast shows, as well as chariot racing. Watching someone or a beast kill another was applauded for the method, skill, or artistic production used in the slaughter. The games themselves provided ways for Rome to d emonstrate the power of their empire, as huge investments of wealth, time, and emotion was put into the games. Death became a spectator sport with the viewing audience and the viewed both contributing to a wild and gory performance. Already by the late Republic magistrates were spending huge amounts of money on these games. The Latin enunciate for gladiatorial games is Munus which means obligatory offering. This reflects the origin of these games as funerary offerings to the dead. small-arm magistrates in the Republic may well have put on games to make water popular favour, this was in their private capacity and not as magistrates. Only gradually did the gladiatorial shows come to be assimilated with the games put on by magistrates. While the most popular games were chariot racing and simulated naval battles, fights in the amphitheatres, shown in these mosaics include gladiator V gladiator, gladiator V animal (pic 2) and animal V animal, were a common feature. Less common, but n ot infrequent was the release of wild beasts from the pits into the arena where hundreds of criminals had earlier been positioned. These spectacles all deeming to be very entertaining to spectators. passim the history of the Republic, there was a difference between the gladiatorial contests and other forms of spectacular entertainment. The Romans did not invent the concept of gladiatorial fighting there is some uncertainty as to the exact source. One ancient source says it was the Etruscans, a non-Indo-European people who lived directly north of the Romans.