Chapter 10
TERTULLIAN
(5) The chariots having been produced by such inventors, it was only fitting that they clad their drivers in the colors of idolatry. For at first there were only two colors: white and red. White was sacred to Winter because of the whiteness of its snow; red, to Summer because of the redness of its sun.
But afterwards, when both love of pleasure and superstition had grown apace, some dedicated the red to Mars, others the white to the Zephyrs, the green to Mother Earth or Spring, the blue to Sky and Sea or Autumn.* * * * * * 7 (6) Since, how ever, every kind of idolatry is condemned by God, this con demnation certainly applies also to that kind which is im piously offered to the elements of nature.
Chapter 10 (1) Let us pass on to the exhibitions on the stage. We have already shown that they have a common origin with those in the circus, that they bear identical titles, inasmuch as they were called ludi ['games'] and were exhibited together the priestess rode from the city of Argos to the temple. The second version ascribes the invention to Romulus, probably because of his instituting the Consualia with its horse-races. The identification of Romulus, the deified founder of the city, with the ancient god
Quirinus can be traced back as far as the Ciceronian age. Tertullian is not interested in the credibility of one or the other tradition, but, putting them side by side, by this very accumulation aims at demonstrating the idolatrous character of the circus races.
7 In the course of time the business of providing drivers and horses for the races had been taken over by capitalists or owners of stud-farms.
The proverbial Roman passion for races, however, was especially due to the organization of 'parties' or 'factions' (factiones), the drivers wearing the colors of the several parties. The original parties were the Whites and the Reds; the Greens and Blues arose under the Empire.
The idolatrous character of the colors is seen by Tertullian in the worship which, through them, is offered to the elements of nature.
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with equestrian displays.1 (2) The pageantry is likewise the same, inasmuch as a procession is held to the theater from the temples and altars, with that whole wretched business of incense and blood, to the tune of flutes and trumpets, under the direction of the two most polluted masters of ceremonies at funerals and sacrifices: the undertaker and soothsayer.2
(3) And so, as we passed from the origins of the games to the spectacles in the circus, now we will turn to the perform ances on the stage. Because of the evil character of the place, the theater is, strictly speaking, a shrine of Venus.3 It was in that capacity, after all, that this type of structure gained influence in the world. (4) For many a time the censors would tear down theaters at the very moment they began to rise. In their solicitude for public morals, they foresaw, no 1 Besides the circus games (ludi circenses) which had originally been everything, all the great Roman festivals show an increasing measure of dramatic performances (ludi scaenici) . While Tertullian devotes five chapters (5-9) to the discussion of the circus, there is only one chapter each on the theater (10), agon (11) and amphitheater (12).
In each case he follows the arrangement of the material he has announced in Ch. 4.4: origin, titles, equipment, places, and presiding deities, finally the arts employed, though the space alloted to each of these subdivisions is rather arbitrary. In the chapter on the theater, for instance, origin, title's, and equipment are disposed of rather cursorily, while the places and the arts employed are discussed more fully.
2 According to this passage, 'the master of ceremonies at funerals' was also in charge of organizing and directing the pompa (solemn pro cession) to the theater. Because of his profession, the undertaker was held in low esteem. The soothsayer (the haruspex who foretold the will of the deity by inspecting the entrails of victims killed in sacrifice) took part in the sacrifices before the procession, and was considered by Tertullian as the embodiment of idolatry. Many religious rites, for instance, sacrifices and processions, were accompanied by the music of flutes and trumpets.
3 Cf. Salvian, De gubernatione dei 6.11.60 (CSEL 8.142) : 'Minerva is worshiped and honored in the gymnasia, Venus in the theater,
Neptune in the circuses, Mars in the arenas, Mercury in the palaestras.'
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doubt, the great danger arising from the theater's lascivious ness.4 In this occurrence already, then, the heathens have their own opinion coinciding with ours as evidence, and we have the foreboding situation of a merely human code of morality giving additional strength to our way of life.
(5) So, when Pompey the Great, a man who was sur passed only by his theater in greatness, had erected that cita del of all vile practices, he was afraid that some day the cen sors would condemn his memory. He therefore built on top of it a shrine of Venus, and when he summoned the people by edict to its dedication, he termed it not a theater, but a temple of Venus, 'under which,' he said, 'we have put tiers of seats for viewing the shows.' (6) In this way he misrepres ented the character of a building, condemned and worthy of condemnation, with a temple's name, and employed super stition to make sport of morality.
Venus and Liber [Bacchus], however, are close compan ions. The two demons of lust and drunkenness have banded together in sworn confederacy. (7) Therefore, the temple of Venus is also the house of Liber. For they appropriately gave the name of Liberalia also to other stage performances which,
4 We know of only one such instance. Livy (.Epitome 48 fin.) tells us that P. Cornelius Scipio Nasica prevented the building of a stone theater, begun by the censors of 154 b.c., as being harmful to the morals of the people. Concerning the resistance to the erection of a stone theater, we must keep in mind the original connection of the dramatic performances with the cult, the god himself being thought to attend the scenic performances that were given in his honor. The ludi Megalenses, for instance, took place before the temple of the Great Mother on the Palatine. A wooden stage was erected for the actors and torn down again after the performance. A stone theater, as a permanent site for dramatic performances, would have severed their connection with the god, his cult and temple. In the section immediately following, Tertullian tells how, in building the first stone theater at Rome (55 b.c.) , Pompey met this prejudice by erecting a shrine of Venus Victrix on the highest point of the auditorium.
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besides being dedicated to Liber (and called Dionysia among the Greeks), were also instituted by him.5 (8) And, quite obviously, the arts of the stage are under the patronage of Liber and Venus. Those features which are peculiar to, and characteristic of, the stage, that wantonness in gesture and posture, they dedicate to Venus and Liber, deities both dis solute: the former by sex perversion, the latter by effeminate dress. (9) And all else that is performed with voice and melodies, instruments and script, belongs to the Apollos and the Muses, the Minervas and Mercuries.6
You will hate, O Christian, the things whose authors you cannot help but hate.
(10) At this point we intend to make a few remarks con cerning the arts and things whose authors we utterly detest in their very names.7 We know that the names of dead men are nothing, even as their images are nothing. But we are not unaware of the identity of those who are at work behind those
5 The festivals in honor of Dionysus, the Greek god of vegetation, more especially of the vine, were devoted to dramatic performances. Since
Tertullian uses the term Liberalia as an equivalent of Dionysia, he must have in mind not the original Liberalia (see above, p. 59), but the pre-eminently scenic Cerealia which were celebrated in honor of Ceres, Liber and Libera, a triad of deities identified with the Greek
Demeter, Dionysus and Kore (see p. 63 n.l).
6 Tertullian mentions additional patron gods of the theater. Apollo, the god of music in general, is called the patron of the human voice; the Muses are in charge of the melodious music at the dramatic performances; Minerva, who was said to have made the first flute and trumpet, is the guardian of the musical instruments; Mercury, who was given credit for having invented letters, is the tutelary god of the script, i.e., the text of the play to be performed.
7 In the remaining part of the chapter, Tertullian makes a digression which is typical of his rigoristic views. Considering the arts only from the point of view of their connection with idolatry, he finds them objectionable on the whole, because they were invented by the demons to seduce and destroy men. It is the demons, too, who inspire the artists.
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displayed names and images, who exult in the homage paid to them and pretend to be divine, namely, the evil spirits, the demons. (11) We see then, also, that the arts are consecrated to the honor of those who appropriate the names of the inventors of those arts, and that they are not free from the taint of idolatry when their inventors for that very reason are considered gods. (12) Even more, as far as the arts are concerned, we ought to have gone further back and taken exception to all further arguments, on the ground that the demons, from the very beginning looking out for themselves, contrived, along with the other foul practices of idolatry, also those of the shows in order to turn man from the Lord and bind him to their glorification, and gave inspiration to men of genius in these particular arts. (13) For no one else but the demons would have contrived what was going to redound to their advantage, nor would they have produced the arts at that time through the agency of anyone except those very men in whose names and images and fables they accomplished that fraud of consecration which would work out to their advantage.
To follow our plan, let us now begin the treatment of the contests [agones].
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Chapter 11 (1) Their orgin is akin to that of the games.1 As a result, they, too, are instituted either as sacred or as funereal, and are performed in honor either of the gods of the Gentiles or of the dead.2 Accordingly, you have such titles as the Olympian contests in honor of Jupiter (these are called the Capitoline at Rome),3 the Nemean in honor of Hercules, the Isthmian in honor of Neptune;4 5 the rest are various contests to honor the dead. (2) What wonder is it, then, if the whole paraphernalia of these contests are tainted with idolatry—with unholy crowns, priestly superintendents, assistants from the sacred colleges,0 and last, but not least, with the blood of bulls?6
(3) To add a supplementary remark concerning the place: as you may expect from a place where the arts of the Muses, of Minerva, of Apollo, and even of Mars meet in common, with contest and sound of trumpet they endeavor to equal the 1 The athletic and musical contests (agones) of Greece, not common under the Republic, became popular under the Empire. Note how
Tertullian here also follows carefully the arrangement proposed in Ch. 4.4: origin, titles, equipment, places and presiding deities, finally the arts employed.
2 Again, Tertullian applies the same division to the agones as to the ludi in general: sacred or in honor of deities, and funereal or in honor of the dead. Of the sacred agones he names some of the most impor tant, while the funereal are mentioned in general only.
3 In a.d. 86 Domitian instituted the Capitoline Agon as a Roman counterpart to the quadrennial Olympian Agon in Greece. Its impor tance may be seen from the fact that it survived to the end of antiquity. The prize (an oak wreath) for Greek and Latin poetry at this Agon was a poet's highest ambition throughout the Empire.
4 Nothing is known about Roman counterparts to the Nemean and Isthmian agones.
5 Suetonius' account of the institution of the Capitoline Agon (.Domitianus 4) is an excellent parallel to Tertullian's description.
He, too, mentions the crowns and priestly colleges.
6 A sacrifice of bulls is reported only of the Neronian Agon (Suetonius, Nero 12).