Roman Wild Beast Spectacles

I attended a Marvelstone lecture by Garrett Fagan called “Watching the Fighters: Exploring the Roman Fascination with Gladiatorial Combat.” Some of the things that he mentioned related to this class such as the wild beast spectacles that Romans performed and enjoyed. I asked Dr. Fagan about how the ancient Romans treated the animals that they used for wild beast spectacles and said that they were mistreated. Many carnivores were starved because hungry animals are more likely to attack. Since it is not in most animals’ nature to attack human beings, they were often whipped to coax them into attacking.

In his talk, Dr. Fagan mentioned that the wild beast spectacles that occurred in Rome are not that different from modern-day bull-fighting in Spanish-American countries and the dog fights that occur in some countries today. He also mentioned that psychologically, people must consider something righteous and justified in order to enjoy it. This is why it is important to analyze and gain awareness about the things that we find pleasure in. I think this is especially applicable to eating animals. For example, in “Am I Blue?” by Alice Walker, she puts down her chicken after gaining awareness and changing her mind about the righteousness of eating meat.  The reason Roman gladiators found killing these wild beasts justified because they thought of them as predators who could potentially hurt humans. They also killed some herbivores and they justified this by claiming that these animals were a threat to Roman farmers’ crops.

Dr. Fagan also stated that violence only occurs when confrontational tension/fear (CTF) is overcome. Unfortunately, people often overcome CTF by victimizing the weak. The reason that we victimize animals may be due to the fact that they cannot speak up for themselves and thus it is easy to take advantage of them.

Another interesting fact that I discovered while researching Roman gladiators is that despite how violent they were to other living beings, they were actually recently discovered to be vegetarians!

Overall,  Dr. Fagan’s talk has helped me continue to think about why our society is collectively violent against animals.

References:

Fagan, Garrett. “Watching the Fighters: Exploring the Roman Fascination with Gladiatorial Combat.” Lafayette College. Kirby Hall of Civil Rights, Easton, PA. 24 Oct. 2014. Guest Lecture.

Walker, Alice. “Am I Blue?” Other Nations: Animals in Modern Literature. By Tom Regan and Andrew Linzey. Waco, TX: Baylor UP, 2010. 182-87. Print.