Suicide is sport and spectacle.

Augustine reports of the martyrs: “when the worship of idols was still practiced, they used to come in huge crowds to very well-attended pagan ceremonies, not with the intention of smashing the idols, but of being killed by the worshippers.”

He continues: “They flung themselves on passers-by who were armed, hoping to be slaughtered, and threatening horribly to attack them if they themselves didn’t die at their hands. Sometimes they even used force to compel judges who were passing through to have them put to death by the executioner, or at least officially flogged.”

He concludes: ““Now, however, they are playing a daily game of killing themselves from steep precipices, or in water or flames.”

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Augustine, Letter 185.