Proud patricians filled the boxes, judges, senators, in white,
Consuls from remotest provinces, and hosts of ladies bright;
And the emperor sat among them, in his regal purple proud,
And below a countless sea of heads, the common plebeian crowd;
Wrestlers struggled in the ring, and athlete and equestrians bold,
And the steeds and dashing chariots raised a cloud of dusty gold;
Troops of sworded gladiators, Dacian captives, fought and bled,
And the lists were strewn with wretches lying on their bucklers dead;
And in the arena Christian saints and martyrs, old and gray,
Were trampled in the dust, and torn by savage beasts of prey.