Gladiatorial contest: the end of a cruel sport

As a contribution to our dabate about cruel sports, Rosa de Pena wrote "In that spirit, let's all remember the monk Theophastrus who put himself between two gladiators in the Games, exhorting them to stop their senseless slaughter. He was killed by the enraged crowd. This led the current Emperor to ban Gladiator fights altogether. We no longer watch Gladiators kill each other. We are getting more civilized... "

I loved the story, but nowhere could I find a reference to this monk. As I do when I am desperate, I appealed to Stanford information specialist Eric Heath, who sent me this Christmas present:

"The name given in your quote seems to be wrong. In Michael Grant's History of the gladiators [1968], he gives the tale: "...Telamachus, a monk from Asia Minor, ...rushed into a Roman arena to part the fighters and was torn to pieces by the infuriated crowd. Honorius [the emperor] seized the opportunity to abolish gladiators and their games altogether. This event is usually dated to AD 404", followed by a footnote that says some sources date this at 391, and that the 404 event is fictitious. Grant had before this tale given a long list of earlier attempts to restrict and then end the gladitorial contests, since the Empire was now Christian and the contests were seen as pagan celebrations.

Getting slaughtered by the mob got Telemachus sainted, and he is known as St. Almachius in the Western Church calendar and his day is January 1. The incident above is given in Ecclesiastical History of Theodoret, book 5, chap. 26. This calls him "an ascetic named Telemachus...come from the East to Rome animated with a holy purpose..." followed by the arena incident.

In the Hieronymianum, the other source for his "life", Almachius is said to have demanded, on Jan. 1, an end to "the superstitions of idols and ... polluted sacrifices", which caused the prefect of the city, one Alipius, to have him slain by gladiators. And that's it, the entire content of the Life of St. Almachius or Telemachus.

My comment: WAISers, remember this Saint on January 1! It is a good day for lovers of cruel sports to make a resolution to celebrate the day appropriately. And a happy Christmas to Eric Heath! (Merry, as in "God rest ye merry, gentlemen, let nothing you dismay" meant happy, joyful).

Ronald Hilton - 12/21/01