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NINTH CHAPTER.
Animal hunt: both of animals on each other and
of humans on animals, and the forest that was laid out for it.
How emperor Probus prepared one. Whether that
plundering hunt was already organized by Nero. Animal fights
long before that. Oudaan's detailed story
about it. The 'pancarpus' or 'all-fruit man' described
in detail by Hofman.
§. I.
Now, since we have already strayed from the subject and because of the similarity in matter, we may add something here about the animal hunt. Because not only were the wild animals let loose on each other in it, and one chased the other, and in particular the large dogs chased the other animals: but also because some desperate daredevils hired themselves out for it and consequently obliged themselves to fight against the wild animals, as will become apparent hereafter.
§. II.
About this it is good to know that the spectacle stage was sometimes suddenly changed into a forest, and filled with thousands of wild animals, partly defenseless, such as deer, wild goats, and so on, and partly cruel and tearing, such as elephants, tigers, lions, and so on.
§. III.
Such a forest emperor Probus had planted in the hippodrome with excessive effort and great costs, and filled it with all kinds, but mainly
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defenseless animals, with which he gave the people amusement and the freedom to hunt, grab, and plunder what they could get their hands on. Vopiscus describes this, saying: (Vopiscus in Prob.) He organized a very splendid hunt in the hippodrome, in which the people plundered everything. The arrangement of the spectacle stage was as follows: heavy trees, taken out of the earth with root and all by the soldiers, were attached to joined beams along the length and width of the field and earth was thrown over them, so that the entire hippodrome, planted in the shape of a forest, was shaded by the gracefulness of new greenery. Then a thousand ostriches, a thousand deer, a thousand wild boars, a thousand fallow deer, ibises, wild sheep and other herbivorous animals were let in through all entrances, as many as could be fed or found: whereupon the crowd of the people was let in, and everyone plundered what he wanted. Some believe that such a plundering hunt would not have been organized by the old, but only by the later emperors: however, J. Oudaan (J. Oudaan at the quoted place) believes that it was also already done by Nero and others, and that the same can be proven on the basis of a coin of Nero, one of a Roman tribe, and one of Augustus. Oudaan shows us these three coins in Tab. C. Coin 4, 5, 6. On the first one sees a wild boar which, among the trees, is assailed by a dog and pierced by the hunter with an arrow. On the second, a wild boar shows itself which has been hit by a spear at the shoulder and at the same time is attacked by a dog in the side. On the third, the boar is pierced with a spear and threatens to fall down.
§. IV.
However the plunder fight may be, it is at least certain that long before that great animal fights were held, in which the animals were also
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hunted and fought by humans. This is clear from the deeds of Pompeius the Great, Caesar, Augustus, Caligula, Nero, Titus and the like, about which Oudaan has written this detailed (Oudaan at the quoted place) story, which story we, because it contains several special and admirable matters, will make available to the reader here. So Oudaan begins on page 392.
§. V.
“The other part of the hunt, in which the wild beasts were driven around for a while and finally killed with arrows and other throwing weapons from a distance, or by such daredevils who hired themselves out to fight with the beasts, happened either in the hippodrome, or in the amphitheater. Thus Caesar gave a hunt that lasted five days, in which twenty elephants fought against fifty men of foot troops: so Pompeius displayed at one moment, in the hippodrome, three hundred and fifteen; Caesar four hundred; and Augustus four hundred and twenty lions with long manes. We have heard of Caligula that he mixed a hunt on African beasts and the Trojan game during the chariot races. Of Claudius, Suetonius says that he displayed a hunt every fifth chariot race: and these beasts often jumped out of their cages with a great roar, as Vopiscus said about a hundred lions with long manes, that with their roaring cries they seemed to equal the thunderbolts: for this, the cages were sometimes opened with a special speed: or the ground was also made so that it unexpectedly opened and closed, and made the wild beasts suddenly appear as if from their holes and caves; as the poet Calpurnius,
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in his description of the hunt of Carinus says about this thus:
Alas, how often did we see the receding arena
break apart into pieces? And from a torn chasm of the earth
wild animals appear? And from the same holes often
golden strawberry trees with saffron-colored bark shoot up.
That is:
How often did we see, astonished and amazed,
on the one and other side the rising sand?
And from that chasm of the earth with force come forth
furious beasts? Yes, that even the orange trees
with their saffron-colored bark shot up from that crack.
And because these beasts, once released, were finished off in one day, this work was called the one-day work; about which Cassian speaking said thus: As happens with those who, for the kings of this world, with a view to rewards, are accustomed to go into battle with all kinds of wild animals; which nature of spectacles in general is called 'pancarpus': a name that is known from the repeatedly mentioned collection of laws of Justinian, with which I think I have given you a sufficient explanation of the names, which I owed you before. What should still be noted: under Nero a ship was displayed that opened by itself and, after it had released some wild animals, immediately closed again. In the description of Severus, Dio, who has been an eyewitness, says that in the amphitheater a construction for all wild animals was made, resembling a ship, that could contain and release about four hundred wild animals at the same time; while the same secretly and unexpectedly opened,
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bears, lionesses, panthers, lions, ostriches, wild donkeys and wild buffaloes came out jumping: this was not enough, for then immediately seawater was let in through some hidden tubes and pipes, and the land fight was changed into a water fight, or naval battle; and shortly thereafter that mass of water was drained again and made ready for another display. So Dio also said about Nero that he at a certain moment, after having killed the wild animals and having organized a hunt, suddenly let the water run into the spectacle stage and displayed a naval battle; and after he had led the water away again, he brought gladiators to the same place; and, changing the setup again, he gave a general and very costly meal there. So can also be understood what Tranquillus said about Titus: He gave a naval battle in the old naval battle basin, also gladiators there, and on one day five thousand wild animals of all kinds.
§. VI.
In this story Cassian (Cassianus) mentions the name for the spectacle 'pancarpus', in Greek, as if one would say: all-fruit. Some have associated this name with such a laid out forest, filled with less harmful animals, and the hunt on them, about which has been spoken before. However, Cassian brings it here, and after him Claud. Salmasius, in connection with the hunt and the fight that daredevils waged and engaged in with the wild beasts. But to give a more circumstantial explanation of the 'pancarpus' to the layman, I see no better possibility than to present the words of Hofman translated to the reader. These are they:
§. VII.
The 'pancarpus' and the 'pancarpus man' are considered to be the same as a forest by Jac. Cujacius, (Hofmannus. Universal Lexicon, under 'Pancarpum')
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Franc. Pithoeus and Is. Casaubonus; who were of the opinion that the name is borrowed from the 'all-fruit offering' of the Athenians and is transferred to other things, which likewise consisted of a mixture of different things. For so Aristeas also called a 'pancarpus wreath' a crown that was braided from all kinds of fruits, namely: grapevines, ears of corn, dates, all kinds of apples, olives and the like. So then, says Casaubonus, they also called that display of a hunt a 'pancarpus', in which all kinds of beasts were accustomed to be displayed, and he considers the one who disputes about the amphitheater of Martial about the distinction between the 'pancarpus' and the plundering hunt a raver, and adds that what the same person says is incorrect, namely that that kind of hunt would have been given for the first time by the Gordians, since one already reads in Lampridius that Elagabalus not only threw coins and banquet dishes and smaller animals, but also fat oxen, and camels, and deer to the people to plunder. According to these learned men, the 'pancarpus' and the forest will then have been the same as what Vopiscus calls the 'very splendid hunt' in his work on Probus; but that it was therefore called a 'forest', partly because the variety of animal species that were led into the hippodrome or the amphitheater, showed the sight of a forest full of game; partly, because all kinds of trees were usually uprooted with root and all and carried into the hippodrome or the amphitheater and planted there, so that the place got the appearance of a true forest. But Salmasius, however, makes a great
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distinction between the 'pancarpus' and the 'forest': for he is of the opinion that in the 'pancarpus' there was no forest, nor the shape of a forest, no grass-eating animals, no animal plunder, no people plundering; just as there were no wild animals in the 'forest', no fight of humans with the beasts, no killing of beasts. For him, the 'forest' is that kind of game and hunt display in which all animals that were brought into it were plundered by the people, for the reason that the entire hippodrome was planted with trees in the manner of a forest: but in this game hunt no ferocious animals, nor animals that could wound with teeth or claws were displayed, but only herbivores, which could be easily plundered by unarmed people; for they were snatched away alive. We read in Julius Capitolinus that the 'forest' of Gordian was as follows: there were deer, wild sheep, wild mares, bulls from Cyprus, wild donkeys, ibexes, fallow deer, and so on. But they called that kind of display 'pancarpus', in which people, hired for a fee, would fight with the beasts. Cassian, Conferences 5, chapter 14: As happened with those who, for the kings of this world, with a view to rewards, are accustomed to go into battle with all kinds of wild animals; which nature of spectacles in general is called 'pancarpus'. These, I say, engage in the first fight against those wild beasts of which they see that they are the strongest of body and the most furious; and if they have felled them, they throw down all the more easily those who are less terrifying and less furious. See also Justinian, Novella 105, where he says that in the so-called pancarpus games people of a desperate audacity, whom Claudian calls 'vermetelen', that is,
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audacious, fought with the wild beasts in that kind of game, of which he also shows that it was called the 'one-day game', hence it did not last longer than the time of one day. The same name is attributed to it in an epigram of Leo the Philosopher. Now these things were done by those people who were authorized and hired for a fee, as appears from Cassian, and from Cassiodorus, book 5, where he describes the 'pancarpus' extensively, although he does not name it in Letter 42, in the last part of which this is read: it is too wordy to elaborate with words on so many cases of danger; but it can be aptly added what Mantuanus says about the underworld: who can list all kinds of evil, who can go through all the names of games? But you, who feel the need to display such things to the people, praise prizes for yourselves with a generous hand, so that you make the wretched desire them. These last words show clearly enough that such audacious and desperate people entered the arena for a fee and a prize to fight against the beasts. Furthermore, the 'pancarpus' was given in the amphitheater, the 'forest' in the hippodrome, and the first spectacle has held up until the time of the last emperors, and was usually organized by consuls and praetors when they took up their office; while the 'forest' and the spectacle of hunting and plundering has completely fallen into disuse among them: at least, there is no mention of it anywhere, and Justinian, in the mentioned Novella, where he makes mention of all kinds of games that were then given by the consuls, nowhere speaks about the 'forest', but he does about the 'pancarpus'. One must also not pass over the fact,
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that the name is better used in the neuter form 'pancarpus' than in the masculine, and that by way of omission, and that one understands the word 'dog hunt' under it. It is now called so after all kinds of beasts, which were fought and killed in this spectacle by those audacious outcasts, of whom we have said that they hired their services to kill them. Salmasius, in his commentary on Capitolinus's biography of the Gordians.
§. VIII.
From everything we see that the hunt, mainly the aforementioned last kind, ended in a fight with wild animals.