Animal Extinctions caused by the Roman Military

[jkaler48]

Referring to the use of Lion skins by the Roman military and Lions in the Games and Elephants for games and military use:
It occurs to me one of the reasons Lions are a now a protected animal
and lion skins are hard to get is the the Romans used up all the Lions
in Europe, the Mideast and North Africa and but for the decline of the Games due to adoption of the Christian faith would probably got the rest of them in the south of Africa also. I wonder how many different species went extinct due to the Romans - The North African Elephant subspecies of Elephant is one.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_African_Elephant

Also from Wikipedia:
"P. l. europaea, known as the European lion, was probably identical with Panthera leo persica or Panthera leo spelea; its status as subspecies is unconfirmed. It became extinct around 100 AD due to persecution and over-exploitation. Inhabited the Balkans, the Italian Peninsula, southern France and the Iberian Peninsula. It was a very popular object of hunting among Romans, Greeks and Macedonians."