How to capture a lion

An 1,800-year-old cemetery on the outskirts of the Roman legionary fortress town of York has been found to contain a skeleton whose pelvis was bitten by a lion. Since most of those buried there were decapitated young men, the victim was surely a gladiator. That lion must have been a major entertainment coup for the soldiers.

During the reign of the emperor Augustus, 400 tigers, 250 lions and 600 leopards were slaughtered in the gladiatorial arena, together with bears, wolves, elephants, boars and other wild animals. This was one important way to win the favour of the plebs and was a very big business, employing thousands of men across the empire. When Cicero was made governor of Cilicia in southern Turkey, he was asked by his young friend Caelius to send some leopards to Rome to further his political chances. Cicero reported: ‘About the leopards, the usual hunters are doing their best on my instructions. But the creatures are in remarkably short supply, and those that remain keep complaining that they’re the only ones in my province who have reason to fear for their safety. As a result, we are told they have decided to leave for Caria.’

How did one capture an African lion? With the help of the African locals, who knew all about luring animals into pits, trapping and netting. If trackers knew where a lion regularly drank, they are said to have placed a trough of water nearby filled with alcohol. Elephants were lured into strongly built stockades, before being transferred into containers constructed out of massive timbers. The animals were hauled up on to wagons and loaded on to specially designed ships for transport to Rome, and even to York. With the wealth and authority of the whole Roman Empire behind the operation, this was arguably the easy bit.