Found the first evidence of the gladiator’s battle with the lion

23. Apr 2025 at 20:01

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Scientists have discovered the first skeleton of man from the time of the Roman Empire, which carries signs of a duel with a cat beast.

This is the first European evidence of the popular entertainment of the ancient Romans-Venatio games, in which the gladiators stood up to wild animals.

The discovery does not come from the Roman Coliseum, as one could wait. Gladiator’s battle with Leo took place in the ancient city of Eboracum in today’s England.

Hunters beasts

The Roman Empire at some point reached from today’s England to the north of Africa or Middle East. As the trade in food and other goods spread, exotic animals – elephants, lions, ostrich or hippos began to bring to the center of the Roman Empire.

Generals and rulers in imported beasts and unprecedented animals from conquered areas have shown their power. Often these were gifts from bad countries like India.

Very quickly, people began to show off animals to the crowd and show their strength.

The animals were placed in the arenas where they showed learned tricks, fought against each other, or met with gladiators – warriors who entertained people with fights for life and death.

One of the first players of the Venatio games was Marcus Fulvius nobilior who included them in his campaign celebrations at Greece In 186 BC. Gladiators met lions and leopards during the hunt.

However, elephants, bears, tigers, camels, leopards, crocodiles or hippos, as well as less exotic or less threatening animals such as deer, cows or zebra have also appeared in the Venatio fights.

Venatio was extremely bloody fights and often more brutal than gladiatorial matches themselves.

For example, Augustus boasted that up to 3,500 elephants died during his games. Up to 9,000 animals were reportedly died in the celebrations after the opening of the Coliseum. However, it is possible that this data is exaggerated, no one knows the exact numbers of the animals killed.

The Romans rarely kept and multiplied by the animals, and for Venatio games preferred wild individuals. Although many games have also used local species such as dogs or bulls, exotic animals attracted larger crowds of people.