AT some point, toward the last third of the Roman Empire existence....I think they had one major epic spectacle every other day. You can figure that this daily event would take four hours of time and keep everyone talking about some gladiator episode or folks being thrown to the lions...rather than being disenchanted with the state of Roman politics.
You can do the averages, but there’s probably at least one or two wild lions/tigers/leopards being thrown into the pit every single day. Has to be daily vessels coming up and delivering these animals.
Human nature does not change. Benjamin Franklin understood that “voters” in a democracy had a never ending appetite for free stuff. That is why at the conclusion of the Constitutional Convention he quipped “We have given you a Republic. If you can keep it.”
Interesting article, but the author needs to retread his bible, if he owns one:
“One type of wild animal show, known as damnatio ad bestias became a trope of Christian martyr stories, like Daniel and the lions den.”