It is really quite interesting when you think of the  images of what it was like to live during the time of the decadent Roman Empire.  We think of the scenes of the Christian martyrs being fed to the big, ferocious man-eating lions.  We think of their arenas where gladiators faced the great fierce lions in combat.  Those lions were believed to be the great shaggy-maned Barbary lions.  They were captured by the Romans in staggering numbers.  It was reported that the great rulers of that time each maintained hundreds of these cats at any one time.  Its hard to imagine these man-eaters as a greater victim than all of the men they ate.  But think about it - since that time - Christians have flourished and the Barbary has become extinct!  The Barbary lion first became extinct in Tripoli in 1700, then in Tunisia in 1891, Algeria in 1899, and finally, the last Barbary lion in the wild was killed in the Atlas Mountains in Morocco in 1922.  In Tunisia, extinction was partly due to the hunting by French and Arab sportsmen, as well as widespread deforestation and human settlement.    In Algeria, it became extinct primarily due to hunting, as the hunting of these lions was so encouraged that the 2 great lion-hunting tribes were not only exempt from having to pay taxes, but they were paid liberally for their skins.  In Morocco, the proliferation of firearms during the civil wars and the rise of banditry resulted in the hunting down the last of these great and noble beasts.