[66] The Circensian games were shews exhibited in the Circus Maximus,
and consisted of various kinds: first, chariot and horse-races, of which.
the Romans were extravagantly fond. The charioteers were distributed
into four parties, distinguished by the colour of their dress. The
spectators, without regarding the speed of the horses, or the skill of
the men, were attracted merely by one or the other of the colours, as
caprice inclined them. In the time of Justinian, no less than thirty
thousand men lost their lives at Constantinople, in a tumult raised by a
contention amongst the partizans of the several colours. Secondly,
contests of agility and strength; of which there were five kinds, hence
called Pentathlum. These were, running, leaping, boxing, wrestling, and
throwing the discus or quoit. Thirdly, Ludus Trojae, a mock-fight,
performed by young noblemen on horseback, revived by Julius Caesar, and
frequently celebrated by the succeeding emperors. We meet with a
description of it in the fifth book of the Aeneid, beginning with the
following lines:

Incedunt pueri, pariterque ante ora parentum
Fraenatis lucent in equis: quos omnis euntes
Trinacriae mirata fremit Trojaeque juventus.

Fourthly, Venatio, which was the fighting of wild beasts with one
another, or with men called Bestiarii, who were either forced to the
combat by way of punishment, as the primitive Christians were, or fought
voluntarily, either from a natural ferocity of disposition, or induced by
hire. An incredible number of animals of various kinds were brought from
all quarters, at a prodigious expense, for the entertainment of the
people. Pompey, in his second consulship, exhibited at once five hundred
lions, which were all dispatched in five days; also eighteen elephants.