Gladiators and lions come to Leicester

Now I grant you "Gladiators and lions come to Leicester" might be a tad to far, but nevertheless there is speculation that the city might offer up the first evidence “of exotic animals” in the arenas of Roman Britain.

Romans from Airfix, 1972

It comes from a story in  Sunday Times, which reports that excavations carried out during the construction of the new Novatel Hotel on Great Central Street uncovered a “carved bronze key handle depicting an unarmed barbarian grappling with a lion, while four naked young men cower in fear…… [which was] buried in the floor of what would have been a grand townhouse”.*

And that has led various academics to conclude that “Roman Britain imported lions for the execution of captives in public spectacles in Leicester”.

The Clock Tower

I can’t help but think it might not actually offer up this conclusion, which instead could have just been a key design prompted by the Roman love of all things gladiatorial and gruesome.

But I freely admit I am no expert and so I will await the report on the findings from the dig in the academic journal Britannia which is published tomorrow.

I would love to include a picture of the bronze key and a reconstruction of what Roman Leicester, might have looked like, but these trespass on copyright, so instead I have settled for two of my Airfix models, circa 1973, and a 1902 picture postcard of the Clock Tower which is close by.

Pictures, my Roman Airfix models, 1972, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, Clock Tower, from a set of six, published in 1902, issued by Tuck & Sons, courtesy of TuckDB, http://tuckdb.org/history

* Bronze artefact reveals lions roared in for the kill in Roman Leicester, Nicholas Hellen, The Sunday Times, August 8th, 2021