Chapter 6
SPECTACLES
Chapter 6 (1) The testimony of antiquity is confirmed by that of the succeeding generations. For the titles by which the games still go today betray the nature of their origin. In these titles there is clearly expressed for what idol and for what superstition of one kind or other they were designed. (2) For instance, the games of the Great Mother and Apollo, and also those of Ceres, Neptune, Jupiter Latiaris, and Flora are general festivals;1 the remaining trace their superstitious ori1 In his enumeration of the ludi, Tertullian does not aim at complete ness. Since his sole interest lies in pointing out their connection with idolatry, he mentions only four of the six great 'public games,' namely, the ludi Megalenses, Apollinares, Cereales and Florales, and omits the two most important ones, the ludi Romani and ludi Plebei. The institution of the ludi Megalenses, the Games of the Great Mother
(finally seven days, April 4-10), is connected with the introduction of the cult of Cybele, known as the Great Mother of the gods, at Rome in 204 b.c. The ludi Apollinares, the Games of Apollo (under the Empire, July 6-13) , were vowed after the battle of Cannae to insure victory over Hannibal, and given for the first time in 212 b.c. They became a fixed annual festival in 208 b.c. Like all Greek cults, the cult of Apollo increased especially after the second Punic war. The precise date of the institution of the ludi Cereales is unknown. From Livy (30.39.8) it appears that they were an annual festival in 202 b.c.
(under the Empire, April 12-19) . Though they were simply called ludi Cereales, two other deities of vegetation, Liber and Libera, shared the festival with Ceres. Though the ludi Florales were instituted as early as 238 b.c., they were made annual only in 173 b.c. They were finally extended to six days, April 28 through May 3. Flora, too, was a deity of vegetation. The two remaining games mentioned by Tertullian do not belong to the category of the great public games. The old
Roman calendar lists a festival in honor of the Italic Neptune (Neptunalia) on July 23. Games on this festival, however, were intro duced only later under Greek influence. From the calendar of Philocalus it appears that they were still held in a.d. 354. Concerning games on the festival of Jupiter Latiaris, originally the festival of the allied
Latins (feriae Latinae), Pliny (Nat. hist. 27.6.45) reveals that a chariot race took place on the Capitol in Rome. The feriae Latinae belonged to the movable festivals of the Roman calendar.
TERTULLIAN
gin back to birthdays and commemorative celebrations of the emperors, to happy political events, and municipal feasts.2
(3) Among them are also the funeral games, established by bequests to render honor to the memory of private persons.3
This, too, is in accordance with ancient custom. For from the very beginning two kinds of games were distinguished: sacred and funereal; that is, games in honor of pagan deities and those in honor of dead persons. (4) But in the question of idolatry, it makes no difference to us under what name and title they are exhibited, as long as the matter concerns the same spirits that we renounce. Whether they exhibit these games in honor of their dead or in honor of their gods, they render the very same honor to their dead as to their gods. On either side you have one and the same situation: it is one and the same idolatry on their part, and one and the same renunciation of idolatry on our part.
2 Besides the birthday of the reigning emperor, there were commemor ated annually his accession to the throne, memorable events in his life (for instance, the adoption of Antoninus Pius by Hadrian), and great accomplishments of his reign (for instance, Trajan's victory over the Parthians, in remembrance of which the ludi Parthici were instituted) . To these festival days which were observed throughout the Empire must be added numerous festivals with games, which owed their origin either to a local cult or to important events in the history of a community. The passion of the provincials for games and theatrical performances was hardly less than that of the population of Rome—witness the ruins of theaters and amphitheaters in all parts of the Roman Empire.
3 Reports of funeral games among the Romans are numerous; for instance, Livy 23.30.15: 'In honor of M. Aemilius Lepidus who had been consul and augur, his three sons, Lucius, Marcus and Quintus, exhibited funeral games and twenty-two pairs of gladiators for three days in the Forum.'
SPECTACLES
Chapter 7 (1) Both kinds of games, then, have a common origin; common, too, are their names, inasmuch as the reasons for their being held are the same. Therefore, also, their equip ment must be the same because of the common guilt of idol atry which founded them.
(2) Somewhat greater pomp, however, is displayed in the spectacles in the circus to which the term is properly applied.
The pompa 'procession'—which comes first, proves in itself to whom it belongs, with the long line of idols, the unbroken train of images, the cars and chariots and conveyances for carrying them, the portable thrones and garlands and the at tributes of the gods. (3) Moreover, how many sacred rites are observed, how many sacrifices offered at the beginning, in the course, and at the end of the procession, how many religious corporations, furthermore, how many priesthoods, how many bodies of magistrates are called upon to march in it each is known to the inhabitants of that city where all the demons have gathered and taken up their abode.1
(4) And if in the provinces less care is given to manage1 Tertullian describes here the religious ceremony that preceded the Circensian Games, namely, the solemn procession which, starting from the Capitol, passed through the Forum and the Velabrum by the Tuscan Street to the Cattle Market, and from there entered the Circus
Maximus, which it traversed from end to end. A fuller description of this procession, which was no doubt modeled after the triumphal procession of a victorious general, is found in Dionysius of Halicar nassus' Roman Antiquities (7.72) . It differs in a number of points from the account given by Tertullian. The variance is probably due to the fact that Tertullian was not interested in giving the exact marching order of the festive procession, but in singling out particular features under the aspect of idolatry. Tertullian is the only ancient author who speaks of the offering of sacrifices at the beginning of the procession. Sacrifices after the procession are mentioned by Dionysius of Halicarnassus (7.72.15).