08-05-2025
Bone analysis proves gladiators fought lions in Britain
Wild beast 'hunts' were a 'feature attraction' at Rome's Flavian Amphitheatre, the Colosseum:
— Mosaics and pottery decorations depict fights between gladiators and animals.
— Convicted prisoners suffered damnatio ad bestias. That the human body, a 'temple of the Holy Spirit', should be devoured by brute beasts was particularly abominable to Christians.
"What have the Romans ever done for us," one of the Pythons asked, "apart from providing sanitation, medicine, wine, public order, and roads?"
Amphitheatres might have been added to the list; large towns, even in faraway Roman Britain, had arenas, in which spectacles of mindless cruelty were staged for public entertainment. British slaves and social outcasts may have taken the Sacramentum Gladiatorem oath.
Paul Mescal as Lucius Verus Aurelius, the exiled Prince of Rome in Gladiator II
The Barbary lion roamed deserts and mountains from Morocco to Egypt. Local trappers knew its haunts and watering holes. Pits were dug into which the hapless animals were lured. Soldiers on horseback hounded them into concealed nets. Water laced with alcohol may have been used to stupefy the unfortunate creatures.
Captured animals were sent to 'entertainment' arenas around the Mediterranean. Transporting big cats on ships and in horse-drawn wagons must have been a logistical nightmare.
Lesion on the right ilium of 6DT19
Rome invaded England in 402AD. Lions had been hunted for centuries by then. Thousands had been slaughtered during the reign of Julius Caesar alone and their numbers had probably become depleted.
So, were these now rare animals sent as far as England, more than 1,000 kilometres away at the northern extremity of the Empire?
Professor Tim Thompson of Maynooth University is the lead author of a paper which presents the first physical evidence that they were.
Marble relief with lion and gladiator. Picture: © The Trustees of the British Museum
Burials were not permitted in Roman towns; cemeteries had to be located outside the walls. York, a major Roman settlement, had frequent gladiatorial shows, resulting in many deaths. Archaeologists unearthed 80 skeletons at Driffield Terrace, southwest of the city. Almost all were of young well-built males; gladiators. Each had been beheaded which was the custom in gladiator burials. The victims had lived around 1,800 years ago.
Forensic examination revealed the bite marks of a large carnivore on the pelvic bones of one skeleton. Comparing the marks to those found on carcasses eaten by animals in zoos, showed that they had been made by a large cat, probably a lion. The wounds had not healed so they must have caused the victim's death.
Lesions on the left iliac spine of 6DT19 [images from
That a great civilisation, a cornerstone of western culture, promoted such revolting spectacles is hard to comprehend. Also, the impact on North African big cats must have been considerable.
But the Barbary lion survived the Roman onslaught. It did not become extinct until well after the invention of firearms. One was photographed in 1924 and the last wild lion was shot in Morocco in 1942. These cats were once kept in the moat of the Tower of London and some still live in captivity today. I remember seeing a pair in Belfast Zoo.
Among the largest of African lions, the Barbary is unusual in that, like the Asiatic sub-species, it doesn't form prides. Prey became so scarce in the Atlas Mountains, where it roamed, that it opted to live in solitary pairs.
