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As an co-author I recently worked upon the introduction and commentary on the Polish translation of Martial’s collection of epigrams, the famous Liber spectaculorum (On the Spectacles), written on the occasion of the inauguration of the amphitheatrum Flavianum (later known as Colosseum) in the year 801, during the reign of the Emperor Titus2. The preparation of the commentary was for many reasons an exceptionally advantageous experience, and one of the most challenging problems that emerged at that time was the question: how was the Romans’ attitude towards cruelty?; how to understand their apparent fascination with it? Was it only a terrifying (for us) allure with mayhem, carnage and blood? Should one take it as a macabre grand-guignol entertainment, aimed at enjoying (by presenting the scenes of terror) the voracious populus Romanus and bloodthirsty plebs Romana, and consequently arranged by the magistrates, politicians or nobles as a tool by which the editores gained popularity and wielded power or control – both in the urbs aeterna as in other municipal cities? Or, could we ever hope to come nearer to the understanding of the cruel practices by expressing our moral judgment: disgust, detestation and rejection, as did openly Michael Grant in his Gladiators?3 How far should historians proceed in their investigations to avoid the risk of falling into an open moralizing? The more questions, the more doubts and uncertainties. Moral abhorrence, repulsion and condemnation are understandable enough to any sensitive man studying the phenomenon of the Roman ludi circenses now4:

Tertullian on the paradox of the Roman amphitheatre games: "De spectaculis" 22