Telemachus

Telemachus an Asiatic monk and martyr who is justly renowned for the act of daring self-devotion by which he caused the gladiatorial combats at Rome to be abolished. In the year 404, in the midst of the spectacles of the amphitheatre, Telemachus rushed into the arena and tried to separate the gladiators. The spectators stoned him to death, but the emperor Honorius proclaimed him a martyr, and soon after abolished the gladiatorial combats. Some doubt has been thrown upon the story on account of the absence from the Theodosian Code of any edict by Constantine in existence, and no evidence can be produced to show that there were any gladiatorial fights after this period, although we know that the combats of wild beasts continued till the fall of the Western Empire. See Smith, Dict. of Biog. and Mythol. s.v.