Bellator 259: Cyborg vs. Smith 2

Cris Cyborg   vs.   Leslie Smith 




Damnatio Ad Bestias, which translates literally to 'Death by beasts', was a not-uncommon method of public execution that you might have seen had you been living in intra--metropolitan Rome anywhere from 2C BC onwards.  A  so-named Bestiarius doubled as a form of light entertainment (panem et circensis) and being state-funded, could be enjoyed free of charge by absolutely anybody--much like dog parks and the fireworks displays put on by your city for new years eve celebrations. 

The event consisted of taking POW's and convicted criminals ( thieves, ******s, bandits etc) and dumping them into a colosseum mostly naked and armed with weaponry about as threatening as feather dusters, to be dismembered and eaten by exotic animals starved and tortured by unthinkable methods to murderous berserk ferocity over weeks and months, as a peanut gallery of average citizenry looked on and cheered. This zoological panoply was generally composed of bears, Caspian tigers, crocodiles, lions, leopards and boars. More rarely a three-horned rhinoceros or African Elephant featured, as these being extremely difficult to procure were prohibitively expensive. Consider the implied degree of difficulty involved (even for a civilization as relatively advanced as the Roman empire) in an age predating electricity, steel, the combustion engine, and tranquilizer darts/sedatives of any description, in capturing, subduing, restraining and transporting such creatures from sub-Saharan Africa for delivery to the European capital. How this was practically achieved one can scarcely imagine. It is absolutely ******* incredible.

A person so condemned would be given the title Bestiarii-- not to be confused a Venatari---  a subset of gladiator trained in hunting and killing animals who was a professional, engaged in similar public displays and was expected to win. No such expectations were placed on Bestiarii, who were not deemed to do anything other than to die in the bloodiest and most humiliating ways imaginable. Survival was an impossibility: should any of the released animals fail in their role either through disinterest or by the intervening hand of Fortuna, they were themselves executed, butchered on site, and their meat thrown to the crowd. Fresh Animalia was henceforth introduced until the grisly end was satisfactorily achieved.

 Naturally such a fate was unfathomably horrifying to the caged Bestiarii (many of which had never heard of let alone seen such things and tigers and crocodiles and who might have been sentenced for the paltry crime of stealing a chicken) and suicides in the holding pens were common. Being manacled and having nothing at hand with which to depose themselves, they would often asphyxiate themselves with their own excrement by using it to plug their nostrils and throats. Never tell me, by the way, that the social universe bends towards things generally getting worse, not better. 

Bestarius', being viewed by the public as kinds of inverted abattoirs, were not highly popular and became increasingly less so as the empire matured and declined. This had far less to do with the brutal nature of the events than it did with the fact they were totally uncompetitive, and as such weren't particularly interesting.

Cyborg KO/TKO R1-2.

* Edited at 04.03.2021, 6:44 PM ET *