THE DECLINE AND FALL

4 18

CHAP.

LXXI.

hide: “ If I am drowned in blood, what a plea-“ sant death,'’ the wish of ferocious courage.The pride or prudence of the Ursini restrainedthem from the field,which was occupied by threeof their hereditary rivals, whose inscriptions de-noted the lofty greatness of the Colonna name:“ Though sad, I am strong:” “ Strong as I am“ great:” “ If I fall,” addressing himself to thespectators, “you fall with me:”—intimating(says the contemporary writer) that while theother families were the subjects of the Vatican ,they alone were the supporters of the capitol.The combats of the amphitheatre were danger-ous and bloody. Every champion successivelyencountered a wild bull; and the victory maybe ascribed to the quadrupeds, since no morethan eleven were left on the field, with the lossof nine wounded and eighteen killed on theside of their adversaries. Some of the noblestfamilies might mourn, but the pomp of the fune-rals, in the churches of St. John Lateran andSt. Maria Maggiore , afforded a second holidayto the people. Doubtless it was not in suchconflicts that the blood of the Romans shouldhave been shed; yet, in blaming their rashness,we are compelled to applaud their gallantry ;and the noble volunteers, who display theirmagnificence, and risk their lives, under thebalconies of the fair, excite a more generoussympathy than the thousands of captives andmalefactors who were reluctantly dragged to thescene of slaughter."

“ Mnratori has given a separate dissertation (the twenty-ninth) tothe games of the Italians in the middle ages.