in Roman antiquity, a kind of show which the Roman emperors frequently exhibited to the people. In this spectacle, the circus being set all over with large trees, represented a forest, into which the beasts being let from the dens under the ground; the people, at a sign given by the emperor, pursued, shot, cut in pieces, and killed all they could lay hold of, which they afterwards carried away, to regale upon at home. The beasts usually given on these occasions were boars, deer, oxen, and sheep.