The Last Gladiatorial Fight in the Coliseum.

Te Aroha News, Volume I, Issue 28, 15 December 1883, Page 5

The Last Gladiatorial Fight in the Coliseum.

In 404 Honorijjs/was; Emperor. At that dwelt an obscure monk named Telemachus. He'had Ward ! of thfese' awful scetorei? in the ' far-off, Co^seum at Rome,, Depend upon it they lost nothing by their transit across tho Meafterrane'art" in'' the handS of Greek and ' Roman I .sailors. .., In the batha/ and market-- . places, of i( in the Jewries , of v Cyrene, iiiiihe, mouths '6,f' every itinerant 1 Eastern, storyteller, the massacres, of £he Cpliseum,\yould doubtless be clothed }n colours fruly, ( appailipg f yet' scarcely mpr^ tWfeft. :ss*s&%. ,-^elema^u*, brooded over these hprrprs un]bil his mission dawrfed, upon hi,m]. . fie" was, drained \ by Heaven to .put.^n endto tfte pf huh^ah'bemgshi t |he'ColiBeiiiip. ( He made' jiis way to'Kome. Heoni»r^dtWCbliseura Jwith tKeJihro^ lit tjh'e'time «ie gladiators, , jwere parading ln^ront of the > Emperor with Uplifted and "jfche , wild ; rnoc,kery' ( of homage^— Monlur^t^sdhUant'. Elbowing his way tq tl^e b'p,rrieri he leapt over, at the [ inaoment 'wjjpriV.tJie 'cbmWt^nt^' rushed a^/ bach|dtKer,"iWew himself between them,i, )ji(iding tnemi in the 'name t of desist, j To '^laiA astonishment sucqeedea imperial cpn'tempt and 1 popular fury. Tele';, , imachus tell,' '^ain' by the 'swords of the.'! g^iapoi;s t ,' Legend may adorn the tale ■ iandjfancy ftp. out the picture, but the solid fact remains-,— il there never was ( another gladiatoriaV fight in the Coliseum I" One jheroic e'oul had caught the flow of popular feeling (^hat had' already begun to set in the' {direction of huriianityj iantl turned it. He had embodied, by hi^ aqt and con^eorated by his death tihe sentiment that already lay jtimidly on the hqarta of thousands in that great city of Rome.— -^'Footprints in Rome." (By -tne 'Rev. 'it. R. Hawefa in "Good,' Words/;) '," ," t ' '