THE LAST GLADIATOR CONTEST (XXXL) - stock illustration

Saint Telemachus (also Almachus or Almachius) was a monk who tried to stop a gladiatorial fight in a Roman amphitheatre, and was stoned to death by the crowd. The Christian Emperor Honorius, however, was impressed by the monk's martyrdom and it spurred him to issue a historic ban on gladiatorial fights. Frederick George Holweck gives the year of his death as 391.The last known gladiatorial fight in Rome was on 1 January 404 AD..Vintage etching circa late 19th century.