Trivial, but interesting (to me)

 

I’m curious to see the new Gladiator movie coming out. The trailer looks amazing—but there’s this huge question about the rhinoceros in the “games.” Just this morning, reading some epigrams of Martial (38-104 AD), I came across this paragraph in his description of what we know as The Colosseum. Martial writes, “Shown along thy Arena's floor, O Caesar, a rhinoceros afforded thee an unpromised fray. what dreadful rage fired he with lowered head! How great was the bull to which a bull was as a dummy!” (Epigram ix, “On The Spectacles”)

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