What pleasure can it give a cultivated man to watch some poor fellow being torn to pieces by a powerful beast or a superb beast being pierced with a hunting spear？ Even were such things worth looking at, you've seen them many times, and we saw nothing new this time. The last day was devoted to the elephants. The vulgar populace was enthusiastic, but there was no pleasure in it； indeed, the show provoked some sort of compassion, a feeling that there is some kinship between this great beast and human-kind.

　　—CICERO, Letters to Friends