Animal entertainments formed a central part of the games and normally took place in the morning. Dio says that over the course of the inaugural games "animals both tame and wild were slain to the number of nine thousand; and women (not those of any prominence, however) took part in dispatching them."[9] Eutropius, who wrote in the later part of the fourth century, records that 5,000 animals were slain during the games.[10]

Dio and Martial record some of the animals that were exhibited. Dio notes a hunt involving cranes and another involving four elephants,[9] and Martial mentions elephants, lions, leopards, at least one tiger, hares, pigs,[a] bulls, bears, wild boar, a rhinoceros, buffalo and bison (most likely the wisent). Other exotic animals may have been used but are not mentioned; ostriches, camels and crocodiles were commonly used in the games.[11] Giraffes are unlikely to have been featured; Julius Caesar had brought a single giraffe to Rome in 46 BC and another is not recorded in Europe until the Medici giraffe in 1486.[12] Though they were first seen in Rome only in 58 BC,[11] and were impressive enough to be detailed in the games of Augustus and Commodus,[13] there is no mention of hippopotami at Titus' games.



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