The Romans had a dubious attitude towards wild animals, which they brought en masse from all corners of the known world to exhibit in arenas. Wild animals had a special function: they were both the executed and the executioners. These gruesome spectacles fit into the worldview that the Romans had of nature and wild animals.
Roman vision of nature
To understand why the Romans brought animals in droves for great arena spectacles, you must first understand the Roman worldview. The Romans were an imperialist people who believed that anything that did not share their vision or opinion should be subjugated. Controlling nature, especially wild animals, which were often our superiors in terms of strength, gave them a comfortable feeling of control.
Like many ancient peoples, the Romans did not yet have science and controlling nature was their greatest challenge. People at that time were even more devoted to the elements and their vision cannot be compared to that of today. For the Romans, fighting and killing wild animals was a way to feel less powerless over nature.
Remember that the Romans did not yet have animal rights like we do. They were not aware that they could have feelings and pain with beings. You couldn’t tell a Roman that he was doing something wrong. Slaughtering animals for show was not wrong for them. They loved to test the strength of these animals in life and death.
If you are aware that the Romans did not care about human rights and also had people fight each other to the death and even saw this as a greater spectacle than animal fights, you immediately understand that the modern animal activist has little to say would have. According to the Romans, animals had no souls.
Relationship between humans and animals at that time
During the time of the Romans, the relationship between people and wild animals was also different. If in modern times we find most wild animals in zoos and these in the wild are highly threatened by human expansion, things were different then.
For the Romans, wild animals were still really wild animals, which they had to catch in nature. There were many more species then , many more animals and many fewer people. Remember that the average human being was the minority compared to the animals at that time. If we now have a hundred tigers of a certain species, compared to billions of people, then at that time you might have only had a hundred people compared to millions of animals. Isn’t it scary to live in a world where you are surrounded by predators that are much stronger than you? The Romans lived in such a world and that is why they wanted to dominate it.
Extinct species
It is difficult to estimate how many animals the Romans killed in their arenas over a period of 700 years. Most likely there are hundreds of thousands, up to millions. The opening ceremony of the Colosseum alone killed 9,000 wild animals.
Indeed, many animal species from that time, which the Romans staged in their arenas, have become extinct. However, it is not always the case that the Romans exterminated them. Some species, such as the North African elephant, which was not killed but trained by the Romans, are known to have become extinct sometime during antiquity, but why is not really clear. What is known is that the massive hunts and slaughters of wild animals by the Romans changed the landscape of North Africa forever and that this had consequences for the further evolution of the landscape. The Romans had no ecological knowledge, as we have today.
It is certain that many animal species were decimated by the Romans, but there are species, such as the now highly endangered Bengal tiger, that still exist. And the big star of the arena, which is most famous, was the Berber lion from the Atlas Mountains. This species is indeed extinct today, but the last specimen was not killed by a Roman, but by a Moroccan poacher in the early 20th century.
Animals as executioners
The Roman Empire was largely dominated by fear, not only of wild animals, but also of people who did not share the Empire’s vision and could therefore pose a danger to the ruling order. There were no prisons, but opponents of the system were brutally executed. To make these public executions as gruesome as possible, people were often thrown defenseless before wild animals, usually lions.
The group that was executed the most were the early Christians, because from their religious vision they could not worship the emperor as God. Questioning the emperor’s divine status was a major crime at the time, punishable by death. Making these executions gruesome and public mainly served as a deterrent.
Romans versus modern civilization
So it is true that the Romans did horrible things to both people and animals. Yet our modern techniques have claimed more animal lives in the last two hundred years than Roman games did in a period of 700 years.
Our techniques are more advanced and hunting safaris to kill wild animals are still promoted as a pastime. The Romans had no firearms. People also died hunting and transporting wild animals at that time. When the Romans went to Africa to catch game, they did so to often let these animals die a horrible death for the entertainment of their fellow man, but it was often also their source of income. There was a period when people went to Africa to sell their fellow human beings and sell them as slaves in the New World in appalling conditions.
So it is shortsighted to see the Romans only as heartless animal abusers. Animal rights only emerged in the 19th century. When you look at our modern meat industry, you may wonder whether we are fundamentally better than the Romans. Don’t forget that horror films are still popular. People love gloating, but the Romans didn’t have the technology we have today.