Yeah, well it's also not true. Many people in Rome wrote against the barbarity of the games, or even slavery, the most famous being Seneca:

> I am glad to learn, through those who come from you, that you live on friendly terms with your slaves. This befits a sensible and well-educated man like yourself. "They are slaves," people declare. Nay, rather they are men. [1]

They are men. Nothing more to say.

[1] https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Moral_letters_to_Lucilius/Let...