ABSTRACT
1 AMONG the northern champions there was one named Biarki, who always used a sword of extraordinary length, which he thought it a pleasure to draw against any fighting man of arrogant ways, with a challenge to single combat. By this means he would not permit men given to the meanest behaviour to disgrace the renown of real champions by their wretched example. So he compelled many fellows on such an occasion either utterly to renounce their insolence or to put their lives in peril. While he was rejoicing in these triumphant feats, a new kind of victory was furnished to him by a wild beast, for when an enormous bear encountered him among the thickets he dispatched it with his sword. He then ordered Hialti, his companion, to fasten his mouth to the beast and swallow the blood that flowed from it in order to become a stronger person, for it was believed that a drink of this kind gave an increase in bodily physique. 1 Similarly, as Pliny vouches at the beginning of Bk XXVIII, it was once accepted as one of the most sovereign remedies to drink gladiators’ blood, so that people who consumed it might keep away attacks of epilepsy. ‘It is horrifying enough when in the same arena we see beasts doing this, but these people reckon it is highly effective to suck it from the man himself while he is still warm and breathing, and by putting their lips to his wounds draw in the man’s very soul along with it; yet it is not customary for men to apply their mouths even to the wounds of wild animals, as if it could be considered healthy for man to turn into a beast, etc. Who devised these wonders? What can have been the origin of such medicine? etc’. So writes Pliny. 2
Biarki slew many by the length of his sword
He kills a bear
Hialti drinks the blood to become stronger
Pliny
Blood of gladiators
