The World of Courtesans c8.61

c8.61

Animal fights were popular among the people and favoured by the royal court. Aelian writing in the second century A.D. observes: "The great King of the Indians appoints a day every year for fighting between men, as I have mentioned elsewhere, and also even between brute animals that are horned. These butt each other, and with a natural ferocity that excites astonishment, strive for victory, just like athletes straining every nerve, whether for the highest prize or for proud distinction, or for fair renown. Now these combatants are brute animals—wild bulls, tame rams, those called *mesoi*, unicorn asses, and hyaenas, an animal said to be smaller than the antelope, much bolder than the stag, and to butt furiously with its horns. Before the close of the spectacle, elephants come forward to fight, and with their tusks inflict death-wounds on each other. One not unfrequently proves the stronger, and it not unfrequently happens that both are killed."