Wrestling, hunting, fowling, playing at cricket (_pila_), he admired and
patronized by personal participation. He tried his powers even as a
runner. But with these tasks, and entering so critically, both as a
connoisseur and as a practising amateur, into such trials of skill, so
little did he relish the very same spectacles, when connected with the
cruel exhibitions of the circus and amphitheatre, that it was not without
some friendly violence on the part of those who could venture on such a
liberty, nor even thus, perhaps, without the necessities of his official
station, that he would be persuaded to visit either one or the
other.[Footnote: So much improvement had Christianity already accomplished
in the feelings of men since the time of Augustus. That prince, in whose
reign the founder of this ennobling religion was born, had delighted so
much and indulged so freely in the spectacles of the amphitheatre, that
Maecenas summoned him reproachfully to leave them, saying, "Surge tandem,
carnifex."
It is the remark of Capitoline, that "gladiatoria spectacula omnifariam
temperavit; temperavit etiam scenicas donationes;"--he controlled in every
possible way the gladiatorial spectacles; he controlled also the rates of
allowance to the stage performers.
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