Because commentators have said nothing about this passage, which explains a little-known usage amongst the Romans, I think I should go into a little more detail. It is well-known that Romans used the punishment inflicted on criminals as a source of amusement, and that the sight of delinquents being torn apart by savage beasts was one of the ordinary pleasures at games in the circus. But Plutarch is alluding in this case to a refinement of barbarism of which we have traces in antiquity, and which I can only mention here. In the tragedies, for example, criminals condemned to death were made to take the parts of Hercules on Mount Oeta; of Creusa who fell victim to Medea; of Prometheus on Mount Caucasus. The ancients took delight in seeing these events depicted literally. In Martial (Spectaculorum Liber, ep. 7), we see a certain Laureolus take the part of Prometheus, except that he was torn to pieces by a she-bear rather than a vulture; another person took the role of Orpheus torn to bits by the Bacchantes, represented by she-bears (ep. 11). Tertullian remarks on this subject (Apologia, c. 15): `Your very gods are represented by criminals.' He mentions Atys, god of Pessinus, mutilated in the theatre; Hercules, burnt alive, and so on. Clavier believes, along with de Maistre, that Plutarch is speaking of a similar representation, and that these are the clothes Juvenal indicates with the words: tunica molesta (Sat. 8, v. 235).