[906] “The gladiators whom you have bought are a very fine acquisition. It is said that they are well trained, and if you had wished to let them out on the last occasion, you would have regained what they have cost you.” (Cicero, Letters to Atticus, IV. 4.)
[907] Servius, Commentary on Book III. verse 67 of the Æneid.—Tertullian, On the Shows, V.—Titus Livius, XXIII. 30; XXIX. 46.—Valerius Maximus, II. iv. § 7.
[908] “When Cæsar, afterwards dictator, but then ædile, gave funeral games in honour of his father, all that was used in the arena was of silver; silver lances glittered in the hands of the criminals and pierced the wild beasts, an example which even simple municipal towns imitate.” (Pliny, Natural History, XXXIII. 3.)
[909] Suetonius, Cæsar, 10.
[910] Suetonius, Cæsar, 11.
[911] Plutarch, Cæsar, 6.
[912] Plutarch, Cæsar, 6.
[913] Plutarch, Cæsar, 6.
[914] Suetonius, Cæsar, 11.—Cicero, First Oration on the Agrarian Law, i. 16.
[915] Justin, xxix. 5, Scholiast of Bobbio, On the Oration of Cicero, “De Rege Alexandrino,” p. 350, edit. Orelli.