The Roman Hunt
The elites of ancient Rome transformed the nature of hunting.
Occupying a shadowy position between hunting for subsistence and hunting for spectacle, the hunt of the late Republic and early Empire is reminiscent of the kind practised until recently in Britain.
One of the architects of modern hunting was Scipio Aemilianus (Africanus the Younger), who in 168 BC fought under his father at Pydna, at the end of the Third Macedonian War.
In much of Greece and the Near East learning to hunt had long been seen as a rite of passage. Nature was to be feared as much as revered and there was glory to be won in tempering it. By wrestling a lion to death, as Plutarch recalled, Alexander showed the world who was king.
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