Bullfighting is a tradition, art and athletic sport combined in one. Bullfighting originated in the classical world. The first bullfights supposedly took place in Knossos, Greece, "a contest of some sort is depicted in a wall painting unearthed... dating from about 2000 BC. It shows male and female acrobats confronting a bull, grabbing its horns as it charges, and vaulting over its back." (Encarta) Bullfights stayed popular after the Greek era had declined, in Rome. The spectacle of bullfighting during this time period was scarcely an art form but pure sport. It was not until the Moors of North Africa conquered the Visigoths of Europe in 711 AD that bullfighting started to evolve into an art. The Moors would ride skilled horses on feast days on which they killed the bulls. During this time period, when the Moors were redefining bullfighting, there were those bullfighters that rode horses and killed the bulls but there were also those men who stood on the ground with capes. The men that wielded the capes aided the horsemen in how the bull was positioned during the fight. These men began to draw most of the attention from the crowd due to their expertise and craftsmanship with their capes; these men eventually became the matadors of
             today. With this development, a corrida de toros ("the running of the bulls") began to take the shape in which it is seen today as modern bullfighting. In 1726 Francisco Romero of Ronda, Spain fit the last piece into the bullfighting puzzle when he introduced the estoque (the sword) and the:
             "The muleta [bullfighting cape]... a Spanish cloak, and you can even see it being worn at times, if rain falls, by fighters off duty... It is nowadays made of two thicknesses of heavy silk, the outside being blotting-paper pink and the inside generally yellow. It is very strong." (Machnad 58)
             The modern sport of bullfighting is strictly an art form, having evolved from its origin in...