Chapter 12
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circus in the stadium, which is no doubt a temple, too—-I mean of the very idol whose festival is celebrated there.
(4) The gymnastic arts also had their origin in the teachings of the Castors and Herculeses and Mercuries.7
Chapter 12 (1) It still remains to examine the most prominent and most popular spectacle of all. It is called munus ['an obligatory service'] from being an officium ['a duty']. For munus and officium are synonyms. The ancients thought they were performing a duty to the dead by this sort of spectacle, after they had tempered its character by a more refined form of cruelty.1 (2) For in time long past, in accordance with the 7 The twins Castor and Pollux were the patron deities of athletic exercises in general: the former, especially of the stadium sprint; the latter, of the boxing match. Hercules was the patron of the pankration
(game of all powers), a contest that combined both boxing and wrestling; professional athletes especially considered him their patron and called their guilds after him. Mercury is called the teacher of gymnastics by Lucian (Dialogi deorum 26.2) ; the gymnasium and palaestra were sacred to him, and he was considered to have been their founder. Statues of Hercules and Mercury adorned the stadia.
1 Originally, munus was the term for the gladiatorial show only. When, later, wild-beast hunts (venationes) were added, the term was applied to this spectacle, too. Under the Empire the place for both exhibitions was the amphitheater, a building which, duplicating the semi-circular theater, rose above an elliptical arena. Tertullian's statement that, at the beginning, munus was a funeral rite is correct.
Gladiatorial games, which had their place originally in the cult of the dead in Etruria, were introduced under Etruscan influence in Rome in the third century b.c. For the first time such gladiatorial combats were held at the funeral of Junius Brutus Pera in 264 b.c. They became the most popular form of amusement in the last century of the Republic and under the emperors.
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belief that the souls of the dead are propitiated by human blood, they used to purchase captives or slaves of inferior ability and to sacrifice them at funerals.2 (3) Afterwards, they preferred to disguise this ungodly usage by making it a pleasure. So, after the persons thus procured had been trained3—for the sole purpose of learning how to be killed!—in the use of such arms as they then had and as best as they could wield, they then exposed them to death at the tombs on the day appointed for sacrifices in honor of the dead. Thus they found consolation for death in murder. (4) Such is the origin of the gladiatorial contest. But gradually their refine ment progressed in the same proportion as their cruelty. For the pleasure of these beasts in human shape was not satisfied unless human bodies were torn to pieces also by wild beasts.4
What was then a sacrifice offered for the appeasement of the dead was no doubt considered a rite in honor of the dead.
This sort of thing is, therefore, idolatry, because idolatry, too, is a kind of rite in honor of the dead: the one and the other is a service rendered to dead persons. (5) It is, furthermore, in the images of the dead that the demons have their abode.
To come to the consideration of the titles also: though this type of exhibition has been changed from being an act in honor of the dead to being one in honor of the living—I mean those entering upon quaestorships, magistracies, flaminates,
2 Quoting Varro as his authority, Servius in his Commentary on Aeneid, 10.519 states that human sacrifice at a tomb was once the custom at Rome, but that in a more humane age the gladiatorial show in honor of the dead was substituted.
3 There was a training school for gladiators in Rome as early as 63 b.c.; similar schools existed outside Rome, for instance, at Pompeii.
4 Tertullian refers to the baitings of animals in the amphitheater. The men who took part in these exhibitions (their general name was venatores or bestiarii) were, like the gladiators, kept and trained in special schools.
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and priesthoods5—still, since the guilt of idolatry cleaves to the dignity of the title, whatever is carried out in the name of this dignity shares necessarily in the taint of its origin.
(6) In the same way we must interpret the paraphernalia which are considered as belonging to the ceremonies of these very offices. For the purple robes, the fasces, the fillets, and crowns6—finally, also, the announcements made in meetings and on posters,7 and the pottage dinners given on the eve of exhibitions8—do not lack the pomp of the Devil and the invocation of demons.
(7) In conclusion, what shall I say about that horrible 5 Gladiatorial combats, originally held in honor of the dead, were sponsored later by higher magistrates, the management of these spectacles being a part of their official duties. In a.d. 47, for instance.
Emperor Claudius 'obliged the College of Quaestors to give a gladiatorial show in place of paving the roads' (Suetonius, Claudius
24) . Outside Rome, the expenses of these entertainments were defrayed -by local magistrates (for instance, an aedile) or by the incumbents of certain priestshoods. St. Augustine mentions (Ep. 138.19) that Apuleius, the second-century African rhetorician, had to provide gladiatorial combats and wild-animal hunts in his capacity as high priest of the province.
6 The givers of the spectacles had the right to wear the triumphal robe.
7 The spectacles were announced by advertisements painted on the walls of public and private buildings, and even on the tombs along the main roads leading into the towns. One of these advertisements found at Pompeii reads: 'The troupe of gladiators belonging to the Aedile Aulus Suettius Certus will fight at Pompeii on May 31. There will also be animal hunts, and awnings will be provided' (E. Diehl,
Pompeianische Wandinschrijten und Verwandtes [2nd ed., Berlin 1930] nr. 246). The awnings provided highly desirable protection against the sun, since the amphitheater was an uncovered building; they were adjusted from time to time as the sun moved.
8 On the eve of the spectacle, the gladiators and fighters of animals were given a kind of last meal, called 'free banquet.' The fare was luxurious, though a time-honored custom was apparently observed concerning one course. One dish was very simple, consisting of pottage, made of meal, the primitive food of the Romans, which was also used at sacrifices.
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place which not even perjurers can bear? For the amphi theater is consecrated to names more numerous and more dreadful than the Capitol, temple of all demons as it is. There, as many unclean spirits have their abode as the place can seat men. And to say a final word about the arts concerned, we know that Mars and Diana are the patrons of both types of games.
Chapter 13 (1) I have, I think, adequately carried out my plan by showing in how many and in what ways the spectacles involve idolatry. I discussed their origins, their names, their equip ment, their locations, and their arts—all that we may be certain that the spectacles in no way become us who twice renounce idols. (2) 'Not that an idol is anything,' as the Apostle says, 'but because what they do, they do in honor of demons'1 who take up their abode there at the consecration of idols, whether of the dead, or, as they think, of gods. (3) It is for this reason, therefore, since both kinds of idols belong to one and the same category (the dead and the gods being the same thing) that we refrain from both types of idolatry.
(4) Temples and tombs, we detest both equally; we know neither kind of altar, we adore neither kind of image, we offer no sacrifice, we celebrate no funeral rites. Nor do we eat of what is sacrificed, or offered at funeral rites, because 'we cannot share the Lord's supper and the supper of demons.'2
(5) If we keep, then, our palate and stomach free from defile1 Cf. 1 Cor. 8.4; 10.19.
2 Cf. 1 Cor. 10.21.
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ment, how much more should we guard our nobler organs, our ears and eyes, from pleasures connected with sacrifices to idols and sacrificers to the dead—pleasures which do not pass through the bowels, but are digested in the very spirit and soul with whose purity God is more concerned than with that of the bowels.3
Chapter 14 (1) Having established the charge of idolatry, which in itself should be reason enough for our giving up the spectacles, let us now treat the matter fully from another point of view, chiefly for the benefit of those who delude themselves with the thought that such abstention is not expressly enjoined.
(2) The latter excuse sounds as if judgment enough were not pronounced on spectacles, when the lusts of the world are condemned.1 For, just as there is a lust for money, a lust for high station in life, for gluttony, for sensual gratification, for fame, so there is a lust for pleasure. The spectacles, however, are a sort of pleasure. (3) In my opinion, under the general heading of lust, there are also included pleasures; similarly, under the general idea of pleasures, spectacles are treated as a special class.
3 Cf. Matt. 15.11, 17.
1 Cf. Tit. 2.12; 1 John 2.15-17.
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Chapter 15 (1) Dealing with the matter of the places, we have already mentioned above that they do not contaminate us of them selves, but on account of what is done in them, that is, once these places have imbibed contamination by such actions, they spit it out again to the same degree on others. So much, then, as we have said, for the main charge: idolatry.
Now let us also point out that the other characteristics of the things which are going on at the spectacles are all opposed to God. (2) God has given us the command both to deal with the Holy Spirit in tranquility, gentleness, quiet, and peace, inasmuch as, in accordance with the goodness of His nature,
He is tender and sensitive, and also not to vex Him by frenzy, bitterness of feeling, anger, and grief.1 (3) How, then, can the Holy Spirit have anything to do with spectacles? There is no spectacle without violent agitation of the soul.2 For, where you have pleasure, there also is desire which gives pleasure its savor; where you have desire, there is rivalry which gives desire its savor. (4) And where, in turn, you have rivalry, there also are frenzy and bitterness of feeling and anger and grief and the other effects that spring from them, and, more over, are incompatible with our moral discipline. (5) For, even if a man enjoys spectacles modestly and soberly, as befits his rank, age, and natural disposition, he cannot go to them
1 Cf. Eph. 4.30-31.
2 St. Augustine (Conf. 6.8) tells about a young Christian who, against his strong objections, was dragged by his fellow students to a per formance in the amphitheater. He held his eyelids tightly closed in order not to see the cruel sport, but, when an immense roar from the whole audience struck his ears, he was overcome by curiosity and opened his eyes. Suddenly he was overcome by a mad passion and 'was wounded more seriously in his soul than the gladiator, whom he lusted to observe, had been wounded in the body.' From that time on he went regularly to the spectacles, dragging in others, besides.