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In 650 BC a captive lion is released into a closed arena in Nineveh where the King of Assyria will prove his courage before the crowd.  His people expected this as a sign of his right to rule.

The king with several bodyguards rides into the arena.  From horseback the lions are weakened with spears before the king dismounts for the kill.

Death comes to a Barbary Lion.  These images we find unspeakably cruel were once admired as symbols of nobility and manly courage.
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The first humans in the Kingdom of the Barbaries clung to the River Nile for protection against the harshness of the desert.  These Egyptians were the first to challenge the Barbary Kings with spears and arrows.  But the sanctuary of the Atlas Mountains was still the sovereign land of the lions for several centuries.

3000 years ago the Berbers came out of Europe to found small villages across the mountains and eke out a living from small farms.  Though they defended their homes against the lions, but they were nothing like the threats to come.

While the Berbers lived on in small villages, other men had grand visions of imperial might.  The Assyrians and Persians built huge palaces and colossal statues of kings they called "Living Gods."  The Egyptians turned their river valley into a field of monuments, the greatest of which were mountains of stone that excite wonder and awe to this day.  

These cultures were built on the iron will of absolute monarchs and controlled by the iron men of mighty armies.  They valued courage above compassion and they hunted lions to flaunt their courage to the world.   Thousands of Barbary lions died under the spears of monarchs and their courts.

Still the depredations of these cultures was nothing compared to the darkness to come.  Across the Mediterranean a small tribe of Italic warriors were building their tiny enclave into an empire that would eventually hold one fourth of the world's human population.   Rome had conquered many kingdoms, and now they turned their eyes to the Kingdom of the Barbaries.  Their story follows.

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