Chapter 5
SPECTACLES
that the entire apparatus of the spectacles originates from idolatry, we will have reached a decision in advance that our profession of faith in baptism refers also to the spectacles, since they belong to the Devil and his pomp and his angels because of the idolatry involved.
(4) We shall, therefore, set forth the origins of the various spectacles, explaining in what nurseries they grew up; next in order, the titles of some of them, that is, the names by which they are called; then their equipment and the super stitions observed in them; thereafter the places and the presiding spirits to whom they are dedicated; and finally the arts employed in them and the authors to whom they are ascribed. If, among these, we find anything that is not related to an idol, we shall declare it to be free from the stain of idolatry and, as a result, to have no connection with our renunciation.
Chapter 5 (1) Concerning the origins of the spectacles, which are somewhat obscure and, therefore, unknown among most of our people, we had to make a rather thorough investigation, our authority being none other than the works of pagan literature.
(2) There are many authors who have published treatises on the subject. They give the following report on the origin of the games.1 The Lydians migrated from Asia and settled in Etruria, according to the account of Timaeus, under the 1 Ludi (Games) is a general term which includes the scenic exhibitions in the theater (ludi scaenici) as well as the races in the circus (ludi circenses), the gladiatorial displays in the amphitheater (munera) , and the athletic and musical contests (agones) .
TERTULLIAN
leadership of Tyrrhenus, who, in the struggle for the kingship, had succumbed to his brother.2 In Etruria, then, they also introduced, along with their other superstitious customs, the spectacles in the name of religion.
From that place, in turn, the Romans invited the per formers, borrowing also the name, so that the 'performers'
[ludii] were so called from the 'Lydians' [Lydii].3 4 (3) And though Varro derives ludii from ludusf that is, from lusus
2 The origin of the Etruscans has been a matter of dispute since ancient times. Many modern scholars share the opinion of Herodotus
(c. 484-425 b.c.) that they came over the sea from Asia Minor. In his history of the Persian Wars (1.94), this Greek historian tells us that, leaving their original homes in Lydia under the leadership of Tyrrhenus, they finally settled in Etruria, Italy (north of the Tiber
River, in what is now called Tuscany) , laid aside their former name of Lydians, and called themselves after the name of their leader,
Tyrrhenians. The Western or Latin name for this people is Etruscans. A number of later ancient authors agree with Herodotus.
Though Tertullian gives one of them, Timaeus (c. 345-250 b.c.) , as his authority, the latter is hardly his direct source; he probably took his information from one of the works on spectacula, mentioned at the beginning of the chapter, whose authors in turn had quoted
Timaeus. The account that Tyrrhenus left his native land, after having been defeated by his brother in the struggle for the ancestral throne, is found only in Tertullian. The coming of the Etruscans to Italy is in all probability connected with the invasion of south eastern Europe and Asia Minor by powerful invaders of IndoEuropean stock in the later part of the second millennium b.c. The entire area remained full of unrest and disturbed for a long time.
Many earlier inhabitants were driven out from their old abodes, among them the later Etruscans who, in their search for a new home, finally settled in Italy.
3 In a well-known chapter of his history (7.2), Livy describes how in 364 b.c. Etruscan actors came to Rome. Concerning the etymology ludii from Lydii, see A. Walde and J. B. Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch (3rd ed., Heidelberg 1938-1956) , s. v. ludius. The powerful influence of Etruscan on Roman civilization appears not only in the fields of politics and economic life, but is especially noticeable in the realm of religion, in which the games, being originally religious ceremonies, played an important role.
4 Concerning this etymology, see Walde and Hofmann, loc. cit. and s.v. Indus.
SPECTACLES
['the play'], as they used to call also the Luperci ludii, be cause, as ludendo ['in play'] indicates, they ran to and fro, this play of the youths belongs in his view to festal days, temples, and religious ceremonies.5 (4) But it is, after all, not the name that matters; the real issue is idolatry. For, since the games also went under the general name of Liberalia, they clearly proclaimed the honor of Father Liber.6
They were first held in honor of Liber by the country folk because of the blessing which they say he bestowed upon 5 The ceremony which Tertullian has in mind belonged to the Roman
Lupercalia, originally a festival of shepherds, held on February 15.
Youthful runners, chosen from the priesthood of the Luperci, ran about the bounds of the old Palatine city, striking at all the "'omen who came near them, with strips cut from the hides of the sacrificial goats. It was a form of simple and old-fashioned fertility magic com bined with the ritual beating of the bounds and with purificatory rites. The ritual performance of the Luperci was in a way akin to that of the Salii, the dancing priests of Mars, who went through the city in the month of March, dancing solemnly in measured time.
Virgil (Aeneid 8.663), for instance, mentions in the same breath 'the dancing Salii and the naked Luperci.' Moreover, quoting the first book of Varro's work De vita populi Romani, Nonius (De compdndiosa doctrina, p. 851 Lindsay) informs us that boys who acted as leaders in the dances at the games were called ludii. Thus we may understand that the Luperci also were termed ludii.
6 Liber, an old Italic deity of vegetation, is often identified with the Greek god Dionysus. Similarity in character and ritual no doubt facilitated such an identification. Moreover, ancient Latin authors sometimes use the term Liberalia to denote the Greek Dionysia, the Attic festivals in honor of Dionysus (thus Tertullian himself; see below, 10.7) . Here, however, where the author discusses the very beginnings of the games in Rome, he means the old festivals celebrated by the country folk in honor of the native deity Liber.
This is quite clear from the context. In the immediately following sentence Tertullian speaks of the old vintage festivals, and proceeds to give an account of the institution of the Consualia and Ecurria, both festivals which point to Rome as their place of origin. The first games, and at that early period the only ones which were held in Rome, were just those rural festivals in honor of Liber. Hence it can easily be understood that in those early times the games were called by the common name Liberalia.
TERTULLIAN
them by making known to them the delicious taste of wine.
(5) Then came the games called Consualia, which orig inally were celebrated in honor of Neptune, because he is also called Census.7 After that, Romulus consecrated the Ecurria, derived from equi [horses], to Mars,8 though they claim the Consualia as well for Romulus on the ground that he consecrated them to Consus, the god, as they will have it, of counsel, to wit, of that very counsel by which he arrived at the scheme of carrying off the Sabine girls to be wives for his soldiers.9 (6) A noble counsel, indeed, even now considered just and lawful among the Romans them selves, not to say in the eyes of a god! For, also, this tends to stain their origin, lest you think something good that had its origin in evil, in shamelessness, violence and hatred, in a founder who was a fratricide and the son of Mars.10
7 The Consualia were celebrated twice a year (August 21 and Dec ember 15) in honor of the god Consus. The name of this deity is connected with the verb condere, to store. He is the god of the storebin or other receptacles for the garnered grain. The horse races held on his festivals and the occurrence of horses in the cult of Poseidon, the Greek equivalent of Neptune, may have led to his identification with Neptune.
8 Two festivals of horse-racing (Ecurria or Equirria) were held in honor of Mars, the first on February 27, the second on March 14. The races were appropriately run in the Field of Mars (Campus Martius) . Why there should be two festivals of horse-racing at such short intervals is not known. They may, perhaps, be explained as preparation for the campaigning season, with performance of rites to benefit the horses.
9 Another tradition ascribed the institution of the Consualia to Romulus and, by a false etymology which explained the god Consus as deus consiliorum, the god of counsel, connected the festival with the famous story of the rape of the Sabine women, told by a number of ancient authors, for instance, Livy (1.9) . According to this tradition, Consus gave Romulus the counsel to carry off the women, when the Sabines attended the games held in honor of the same god.
10 According to one story, Rhea Silvia (otherwise known as Ilia) , a Vestal Virgin, met Mars while fetching water for the sacred rites, and became by him the mother of the twins Romulus and Remus. In the struggle for the kingship Romulus slew his brother for contemptuously leaping over the rising wall of Rome.
SPECTACLES
(7) Even now, at the first goal posts in the Circus, there is an underground altar dedicated to that Consus with an in scription that reads as follows: Consus mighty in coun sel, Mars in war, the Lares at the crossroad.11 Sacri fice in offered on this altar on the seventh day of July by the priests of the state,12 and on the twenty-first of August by the Flamen of Quirinus13 and the Vestal Virgins.
(8) On a later date, the same Romulus instituted games in honor of Jupiter Feretrius at the Tarpeian Rock, which, according to the tradition handed down by Piso, were called
Tarpeian and Capitoline Games.14 After him, Numa Pompilius initiated games in honor of Mars and Robigo—for they
11 That Consus, the deity who presided over the storing of the harvest, had an altar underground, may be due to the fact that corn was often stored underground. The inscription is known through Tertullian only. The Latin text as we have it now reads: 'Consus consilio Mars duello Lares _p coillo potentes.' A. von Blumenthal ('Die Inschrift des
Consusaltares im Circus Maximus,' Archiv fur Religionswissenschaft 33 [1936] 384-385) takes coillo as a synonym of compito (the cross road) , since the Lares were especially worshiped at crossroads. Consilio he considers a misreading of consivio, an old neuter, meaning 'the gathering of the harvest,' so that the first part of the inscription would read: 'Consus mighty at the gathering of the harvest.' The altar being underground, the inscription was no doubt hard to read.
An error could, therefore, easily creep in when the text was copied by Varro or some other Roman antiquarian. However this may be, from the context in which the inscription occurs in Tertullian, it is clear that he himself found the reading consilio, 'counsel,' in his source—in all probability Suetonius, whom he mentions at the end of the chapter.
12 The priesthood of the pontiffs who were in charge of the worship of the native Roman gods.
13 The special priest of Quirinus, a very ancient deity, probably the god of the Sabine settlement on the Quirinal Hill. When this settlement was united with the Latin settlement on the Palatine to form the city of Rome, Quirinus became a Roman god. The ancients looked on him as a war god.
14 The Tarpeian Rock is a part of the Capitoline Hill; hence, 'on the Tarpeian Rock' is here synonymous with 'on the Capitoline Hill.' This agrees with the tradition handed down by Varro (De lingua latina
5.41), according to which the Capitol was formerly called the Tarpeian
TERTULLIAN
invented also a goddess of robigo [mildew].15 Later still came Tullus Hostilius, then Ancus Martius and, in their order, the other founders of games.
As to the idols in whose honor they instituted these games, information is found in Tranquillus Suetonius or in his sources.16 But this will suffice to prove the guilty origin of the games in idolatry.
Hill. Thus 'Tarpeian' is equivalent to 'Capitoline.' 'The Tarpeian citadel' (Virgil, Aen. 8.652) is the Capitoline citadel. The Capitoline
Jupiter is called 'the Tarpeian Thunderer' by Ovid (Ex Ponto 2.2.44) and 'the Tarpeian Father' by Propertius (Eleg. 4[5].1.7) . Similarly, the Capitoline Games could also be called the Tarpeian Games. The origin of these games is obscure. According to Livy (5.50.4 and 52.11) , for instance, they were instituted only after the withdrawal of the Gauls from Rome (c. 387 b.c.) . However this may be, they were con nected rather with the cult of Jupiter Capitolinus than with that of Jupiter Feretrius. Feretrius was another surname of Jupiter, in whose honor Romulus erected a small temple on the Capitol after defeating the people of Caenina and capturing their city (Livy 1.10) . The direct source of Tertullian is, of course, not the Roman annalist
L. Calpurnius Piso (consul in 133 b.c.) , but a later work, dealing with spectacles (spectacula), in which he found whatever earlier authors had said on the subject.
15 Robigus, or Robigo (there was some difference of opinion as to the sex of the deity), was a Roman god or goddess to whom prayers were offered during a solemn procession on April 25 to protect the crops against mildew (robigo) from which he or she took his or her name.
In the early days of Rome when the population lived on corn grown in the immediate neighborhood of the city, the Robigalia were a festival of very real meaning, since at times the red mildew was a terrible scourge, causing heavy damage to the crops. A note in the Praenestine calendar tells that games were held by runners, both men and boys.
16 Tertullian's account of the origin of the games is rather meager and becomes continually terser. As a matter of fact, the reprehensible origin of the Consualia alone is discussed in more detail. Then, after mentioning rather cursorily the Equirria and the games of Mars and Robigo, Tertullian confines himself to naming some kings as 'founders of games.' As for the rest, he refers his readers to his direct source, a work of C. Suetonius Tranquillus on the History of the Games
(Historia ludicra), or 'his sources.'