”LANISTA

Behold the afternoon sun, how slowly it withdraws from the sand,
  those darker stains within the shadows, though they
  have been covered and covered again, growing darker
  still,
Behold the stone tiers, how empty now,
Behold this day, merely a day, but rumored it may be the last on which
  these simple games, our great sports are ever held--

I, Arius, trainer of the best, matched in my youth against the best,
And against them all,
The swordsmen of every province, the netmen, even the beasts--

Knowing no mother or father save this arena, and no other life,
Twenty-eight killed (more than fifty palms), four times spared
  (once by the Emperor, saved by the people thrice),
Sometimes still seeing my portrait on the lamps, the vases, the
  matrons’ gems
(In addition to the jeweled chains, the helmets, purses, and other
  favors once given me),
And my name, that I have heard in song--

And knowing as well a certain midnight of the spirit that comes to all,
  when each, in his cell, must be chained against self-
  destruction,
Only to be scourged on the very next day, by whips and red-hot irons,
  to the dangerous fight--

Yet now I hear, with wonder. that none of this has been of any avail,
These combats have had no meaning and are in fact nothing, less than
  nothing at all--

As though the fight between the women and the dwarfs had been for
  nothing,
And the combat between the crippled and the blind. had that no point?
Is it not good that the race shall ever behold itself with pride and disgust,
  horror and fright?--

So they say this may be the last of our little games--

Well,
We shall see.”

Kenneth Fearing, op cit

"They recognize the difficulty of the task," Rumsfeld said. "You got to remember that if
Washington, D.C., were the size of Baghdad, we would be having something like 215
murders a month. There's going to be violence in a big city." Rumsfeld noted that Baghdad
has nearly six million residents. (via This Modern World)

"Part of mortality’s significance is that wars end." --Eileen Tabios (via Silliman's Blog)