Strange and Horrid Ancient Halftime Shows.

The Romans used to have a "halftime" show during each session of games, called the ludi meridiani, or midday entertainments, in late morning and at noontime when the sun would transit the meridian, so to speak, which were ever-increasingly elaborate executions known as damnatio ad bestias, or condemnation to wild animals.

Basically the ludi meridiani went like this: (items in brackets mine typical for all quoted blocks)

To meet this ever-growing pressure to keep the Roman crowds happy and engaged by bloodshed, bestiarii were forced to consistently invent new ways to kill. They devised elaborate contraptions and platforms to give prisoners the illusion they could save themselves — only to have the structures collapse at the worst possible moments, dropping the condemned into a waiting pack of starved animals. Prisoners were tied to boxes, lashed to stakes, wheeled out on dollies [mobile poles] and nailed to crosses [T-poles], and then, prior to the animals' release, the action was paused so that bets could be made in the crowd about which of the helpless men would be devoured first.

Then one exceptional bestiarii or beast-fighter by the name of Carpophorus, to satisfy the sick taste of the spectators (especially the jaded and filthy rich honestores, or top 0.1%), came up with a plan to combine damnatio ad bestias with crucifixion by impalement: he started to train large animals with oversize endowments to rape people, literally to death! And here is how that went:

To have his work [actually his prowess at killing large wild animals such as twenty bears at one time with his bare hands] compared so fawningly to battles with some of Rome’s most notorious mythological beast sheds some light on the astounding work Carpophorus was doing within the arena, but he gained fame as well for his animal work behind the scenes. Perhaps most shockingly, it was said that he was among the few bestiarii who could command animals to rape human beings, including bulls, zebras, stallions, wild boars and giraffes, among others. This crowd-pleasing trick allowed his editors to create ludi meridiani that could not only combine sex and death but also claim to be honoring the god Zeus. After all, in Roman mythology, Zeus took many animal forms to have his way with human women.

Historians still debate how common of an occurrence public bestiality was at the Roman Games — and especially whether forced bestiality was used as a form of execution — but poets and artists of the time wrote and painted about the spectacle with a shocked awe.

"Believe that Pasiphae coupled with the Dictaean bull!" Martial wrote. "We've seen it! The Ancient Myth has been confirmed! Hoary antiquity, Caesar, should not marvel at itself: whatever Fame sings of, the arena presents to you."

The Ancient Myth has been confirmed??? Uh..., no.

Source article: "Could You Stomach the Horrors of 'Halftime' in Ancient Rome?", Cristin O'keefe Aptowicz, LiveScience.com, posted 2/6/2006. Link: https://www.yahoo.com/news/could-stomach-horrors-halftime-ancient-rome-141951626.html/