son that my evidence is
that of a contemporary and I know no one else who has my ability at
reducing notable things to writing that has studied them so exhaustively
as I.

[Sidenote:--19--] It was on the first day, then, that this took place. On
the others he frequently went down from the raised section to the bottom
of the circle and slaughtered all the tame animals that he approached,
some of them also being led to him or brought before him in nets. He also
killed a tiger, a hippopotamus, and an elephant. After accomplishing this,
he retired, but at the conclusion of breakfast fought again as a
gladiator. The form of fighting which he practiced and the armor which he
used was that pertaining to the so-called _secutor:_ in his right
hand he held the shield and in his left the wooden sword. He prided
himself very greatly upon being left-handed. His antagonist would be some
professional athlete, or, perhaps, gladiator, with a cane; this was
sometimes a man that the emperor himself challenged and sometimes one that
the people chose. In this and other matters he acted the same way as the
other gladiators, except that they go in for a very small sum, whereas
Commodus had twenty-five myriads from the gladiatorial fund given him each
day. There stood beside him during the contest Aemilius Laetus, the
prefect, and Eclectus, his cubicularius. He went through a skirmish, and,
of course, conquered, and then, just as he was, he kissed them [Footnote:
Supplying [Greek: ois] (after Reimar).] with his helmet on. After this the
rest did some fighting.--The first day he personally paired all the
combatants, either down below, where he wore all the attire of Mercury,
including a gilded wand, or else from his place on the elevated platform;
and we took his proceeding as an omen. Later he ascended his customary
seat and from that point viewed the remainder of the spectacle with us.
Nothing more was done that resembled child's play, but great numbers of
men were killed. At one place somebody delayed about slaying and he
fastened the various opponents together and bade them all fight at once.
At that the men so bound struggled one against another and some killed
those who did not belong to their group, since the numbers and the limited
space had brought them into proximity.

[Sidenote:--20--] That spectacle as here described lasted fourteen days.
While the contests were going on we senators invariably attended, along
with the knights, save