1 January 404: A monk tackles the gladiators

Telemachus intervenes in an attempt to halt Rome’s bloody public games

Advertisement

By the beginning of the fifth century AD, the gladiatorial games that had once so entranced the Roman crowds were in steep decline. To the disappointment of the connoisseurs, brutal slaughter had gone out of fashion. Under the new state religion, Christianity, the games were seen as a reactionary relic. Attendances were dwindling, the arenas were crumbling and the standard of the fighters was not what it had been.

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement