The loss of the merchant survey ship SS Beagle near planet 892-IV, after which Captain R. M. Merik sent his crew down to die in the arenas of a twentieth-century Roman Empire.
In the Original Series episode Bread and Circuses, the Enterprise finds wreckage of the SS Beagle, missing for six years, and traces it to planet 892-IV. The world is a close parallel of Earth on which Rome never fell and gladiatorial combat is broadcast on television.
The Beagle's captain, R. M. Merik, once failed a psycho-simulator test at the Academy alongside Kirk. After his ship was damaged he went ashore and was persuaded by Proconsul Claudius Marcus to bring the crew down. Those who could not adapt were sent to the arena, while Merik became First Citizen Merikus.
Marcus tries to make Kirk do the same, forcing Spock and McCoy to fight. Merik at last recovers his nerve and throws a communicator to Kirk so that the landing party can be beamed away, and Marcus kills him for it.