Roman Games - Animals in the Arena

Roman games included wild animals. Recent excavations, on the island of Sicily, are helping historians to gain a better understanding about how animals were imported, then transported, to Roman arenas. A previously unknown mystery is slowly being unraveled.

This clip, from Beasts of the Roman Games (a BBC documentary using ancient sources, modern excavations, expert interviews and recreated scenes) helps us to better understand how wild animals were used in the Roman Games. It is not a pleasant history.

The use of wild animals in Roman games began, it is believed, when elephants were first paraded into an arena in 275 B.C. Historians tell us that when the emperor Titus launched the inaugural games at the Colosseum, nine thousand animals were slain.