Catching Animals for the Arena in Ancient Rome

 

Advice to a Referee in the Games

 

In the course of your duties you are bound to come across the animal suppliers. The really big familia will have staff to deal with this, but the smaller ones will rely on you and the lanista to handle it all.

 

You will no doubt find yourself approached by all sorts of characters offering to supply you with wild animals for the show. Some will be honest, others will not. All will have stories about how difficult it is to catch and transport animals. Of course, they are simply trying to justify charging a ridiculously high price for the animals. You don’t want to be caught out, so here is the truth.

 

The first thing to remember is that right across the Empire there is a network of hunters, markets and transports which employ thousands of men on the sole task of catching and transporting animals to perform in the arena.

 

The Imperial Government has got its own organisation that supplies animals to Rome and the Flavian Amphitheatre. You won’t have anything to do with them as they supply only the great games in Rome. You will be dealing with the private enterprises that supply animals to the smaller munera in the provinces.

 

         In some provinces, the governor employs teams of professional hunters to go out and capture whatever local animals perform well in the arena. In Germany the army is part of the operation. Legion I Minervia has one cohort exempt from military duties. Instead the men escort the local hunters and herdsmen as they go out catching bears and wolves.

 

In other provinces it is down to businessmen to catch the animals. Once caught they are taken to local fairs, held two or three times a year where agents come to buy them. Those agents then take the animals to the various towns and cities around the Empire. It is these agents that you will deal with.

 

In North Africa, leopards are caught by digging a deep pit and building around it a short wall just high enough to stop a passing leopard seeing the pit behind. A goat is then put in the pit. Hearing the helpless prey and sensing an easy meal, the leopard leaps over the wall and falls into the pit. Of course, getting the angry leopard out the pit without being eaten is another matter.

 

In Syria, Cappadocia and Arabia, lions are taken as cubs. If the enraged mother intervenes, one cub is dropped so that while the lioness gently carries her youngster back to the den, the hunters escape with the others. A more ingenious method for taking adult lions is to locate a stream or pool where a lion is accustomed to drink. A trough of water heavily laced with wine is then put in place. When the lion drinks, it become drowsy and is easily overpowered.

 

In Numidia, south of Egypt, high fences many miles in length are constructed across an area of bush. The fences slowly converge to form a funnel, ending in a large enclosure. Men spread out across a vast area. They bang drums, blow trumpets and generally make as much noise as possible. The animals flee the noise and are channelled by the walls into the enclosure. Men with lassoes then move into  catch ostriches, zebra, antelope, baboons and anything else that has been caught.

 

All this is relatively straightforward and simple for the men trained and experienced in the task. Do not fall for any strange stories about harpies, ghosts or gods. Just haggle a decent cash price.

 

Elephants and rhinoceroses are different. Even for experienced bestiarii these can cause all sorts of problems because of their sheer bulk and power. Crates need to be made of thick timber and dozens of men strain on the ropes lifting them from cart to ship and back again.

 

Nor are elephants easy to catch. Domestic elephants are easy to handle, but they don’t fight well in the arena. You need wild elephants and that is a problem. There is no point luring an elephant into a pit as the others in the herd will stomp the edges of the pit until they collapse and the prisoner escapes. Instead these beasts have to be lured into stoutly built stockades. Tricky stuff. The familiar North African elephant is getting scarce these days. [it would go extinct in about ad350 - editor]. As a result the best supply of elephants comes either from India - though these beasts are calm and difficult to provoke to fight - or Numidia.

 

The Numidian elephants are much bigger than North African or Indian elephants, and they are better fighters. But they are difficult to handle. You will be lucky to get one at any price.