Did the Romans bring lions to England to maul criminals and prisoners of war to death for gruesome entertainment?
Lions are for their presence at the Roman colosseum, but did they ever make it to Roman Britain?
Rebecca Franks
Published: July 4, 2025 at 11:13 pm
The tales of gore and glory in the Roman empire are legendary, not least when it came to crime and punishment, says Rebecca Franks. It was legal under Roman law to throw criminals and prisoners of war to the beasts, who would claw, bite and maul these unfortunate people to death.
This brutal public spectacle was known in Latin as damnatio ad bestias, and to feed it, lions (along with a host of other exotic creatures) were ambushed and captured in North Africa and transported to Rome, where they became part of the bloody entertainment at the Colosseum.
Given that the trade in wild beasts traversed the Roman empire, it’s fair to ask if lions ever made it to Roman Britain. Until recently, there’s been scant evidence to suggest that was the case, but two discoveries in the last four years have brought the question back into the spotlight.
Did the Romans bring lions to England?
First, we’ll head to Leicester in 2021, where archaeologists were excavating under the floor of a Roman town house. They discovered an unusual bronze key which, once they’d cleaned it up, was found to be decorated with a ‘barbarian’ grappling a lion. (Barbarians were enemies of the Romans, living in tribes outside the empire.) The researchers claimed their discovery added weight to the idea wild animals were used to execute people in Roman Britain.
More:
https://www.countryfile.com/people/historical-figures/did-the-romans-bring-lions-to-england
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