Excerpt: Chronicles of Katryoneia

There were stories passed at firesides by slaves of escaped lions from the animal-catching bands that explored foreign lands for the animal fights at the Colosseum and Amphitheatres. There was even a story that was used as warning for the slaves.
One day, a slave called Lucius ran away from Gnaeus’ father, Primo, who had dealings in the slave and live animal trade. Primo’s men searched for a week until they found the carcass torn open and consumed and deduced that it was a large cat, either a tiger or a black leopard escaped from the beast-catchers. A month later, three prize bulls were taken in the night and the culprit was never found. The masters used this tale as a moral that the slaves should know that they were safer in the houses of their masters that out in the wild where there were predators that hunted them.
The slaves, however, petitioned Primo, and then Gnaeus to allow themselves to carry farming utensils as protection against the wild beast, and the masters agreed that it should be, but only for a short time. Whenever that rule was lifted by the masters command, a body of a slave always appeared under obscure and mysterious circumstances.
The last time that had happened, a rebellion had taken place in Rome, the masters were cautious of giving their slaves pitchforks and spears to defend themselves against the mysterious beasts. They decided, after much deliberation and debating that the slaves defences should be limited to staff and sling.