Page "Gladiator" Paragraph 15

A show of gladiators was to be exhibited before the people in the market-place, and most of the magistrates erected scaffolds round about, with an intention of letting them for advantage.

Caius commanded them to take down their scaffolds, that the poor people might see the sport without paying anything.

But nobody obeying these orders of his, he gathered together a body of labourers, who worked for him, and overthrew all the scaffolds the very night before the contest was to take place.

So that by the next morning the market-place was cleared, and the common people had an opportunity of seeing the pastime.

In this, the populace thought he had acted the part of a man ; but he much disobliged the tribunes his colleagues, who regarded it as a piece of violent and presumptuous interference.