Spectacles 329

376 Seneca the Younger, An Essay about Peace of Mind 2.13

S:'me people undertake aimless journeys and wander up and down the coast. An unhealthy restless-
:'..,,35always afflicts them whereverthey are, traveling by sea or by land. "Let's go to Campania. "141
:::.1t luxury proves to be a bore. "Let's hurry to Bruttium and the woodlands of Lucania." 142 Yet
:.:::-idstthese wild regions, they look for something refined so that they can relieve their delicate eyes
.: the unbroken desolation of these uncultivated areas. "Let's go to Tarentum.v" it has a famous
.-.:..:-borand mild winters and is certainly opulent enough and charming." "No, let's go back to
-,.me." It's been much too long since their ears have heard thunderous applause. 144 And human
: . cod would be an enjoyable sight.

SPECTACLES

-~ome's early history, the only occasions for holidays were religious festivals. Since
; : Ilan society was in origin agricultural, the purpose of the festivals was to win the
• _:::::Jortof gods or spirits who controlled the weather, crop growth, animal breeding,
,-::: so on.14SThese festivals were days of sacrifice and ritual, but also of holiday
- -:"iment, as Easteror Christmas are for us today. In addition to holidays devoted to
: =:ating the divine spirits, there were holidays established to thank the gods for
- -: cing the Romans win a specific military victory. For example, before a battle, the
:.c-:,~al would pray on behalf of the Romans to certain gods and vow that if the
; : - ans won they would honor those gods with a day (or days) of holiday entertain-
- -=.-:. ;46 Although each thanksgiving holiday originally marked the victory of a
:.-::iic campaign, it became an annual event, and its original significance may have
''':--::-forgotten. On these days, the state presented various types of entertainment,
- =" were financed with public funds. These entertainments were called ludi,
- = ,'" can be translated as "games" or "plays" or "sports." 147Although the ludi
-:'-=' originally presented as part of the religious celebration that brought people
Z-::ler to honor the gods publicly, gradual changes began to occur in the celebra-
: - :::; Roman religious holidays. In urban areas, holidays without ludi148 became
'nportant to most people than holidays with them, particularly as the city-
-: ng Romans forgot their agricultural associations. And holidays with ludi were
• C - .ied to occupy more days. The Ludi Cereales, for example, which honored
-'-:; the goddess of grain, were extended from one to seven days, from April 12 to
_c The Ludi Romani, which were dedicated to Juno, Jupiter, and Minerva, lasted

_=: znia: a region south of Rome where the cities of Naples and Pompeii were situated .
. -.-::;m, Lucania: regions in the southernmost part of the Italian peninsula.
-.', -::1/11: city in the southeast coast of Italy. It was founded by the Greeks.
- '_.',~,'ous applause: probably at the spectacles in the arena such as gladiatorial combats.
'~ : '-ilia, for example, on April 21, honored Pales, the goddess of shepherds and flocks.
'. »vs might also be made when asking the gods for relief from a plague or famine.
singular of ludi) can also mean "training," and the word ludus is used both for children's play and
school, as well as for training schools for gladiators.
: C:::.ia, for example .
. ", Ceres: tbe origin of the English word cereal.
330 LEISURE AND ENTERTAINMENT

fourteen days, from September 5 to 19. Of course, people did not take all those dav 0 "'- ~
off work, but the spectacles were usually presented in the afternoon when man'. ·rJ
people were free.150 About 100 B.C., there were fifty-eight days of festivals withou: i~ri

ludi each year and fifty-seven days of ludi, although the fifty-seven days represented
only six separate celebrations.!»
The association of holidays and public entertainment with religion was weak-
ened when Sulla dedicated ludi to Victoria Sullae-"Sulla's (military) Victory."152 It
~~::T.J
then became fairly common practice to celebrate personal military victories with
~I')o·"·-··
ludi, and, in the imperial period, to celebrate thus the emperor's birthday or his death .~ .~. :ilm
and deification. By the fourth century A.D., there were 177 regular days of ludi in the
."!ii!e
year.
!f-'" :'11
The ludi were "popular" and "public" spectacles in several senses.They brought -- .ai"
together the Roman people (Latin populus) for an enjoyable communal event, which
was organized by public officials and paid for with public funds. The main specta- .;'1· ..••'....-

cles153 or shows enjoyed by people during the ludi were chariot racing, theater .-.:..;~
events, and wild animal "hunts." Gladiatorial combats, although common in the
republican period as privately sponsored events, did not become part of the publicly .:. ."-:; ..~
sponsored entertainments until the imperial period.t=' Admission to the ludi was free.
t,' -.--Ta
At the beginning of each year, the Senate would decide how much money it wished ;rr. ~.i-''- '~~
to allocate for the ludi of each holiday. The production of the ludi, however, was -r;-.lIf'~

entrusted to the aediles (or, in the imperial period, to the praetors). It was their job to ~ l~l~,;j"'-' r-
hire the performers.O? buy wild animals, purchase necessary equipment, and so on. ;·U·:L.,-;'11'""!Bftl
The senatorial allotment was intended to cover all these expenses, but most aediles
:" jl!
added to this allotment large amounts of their own money because they hoped to win
," :uett
popularity with the voters by arranging "the greatest show on earth." The aediles
were, of course, ambitious politicians with their eyes on the praetorship and consul-
',1 :.,:

ship, and were therefore willing to buy voter support by subsidizing the public
-'rll: .~
entertainments from their own private funds.156 When Julius Caesar was aedile in 65
I~~~ ,•• :.' ~Ullll
B.C., he almost ruined himself financially in order to stage lavish entertainments. But
:1:·::1:-1il.... I,;••
his near bankruptcy was a wise gamble; he went on to be elected consul and then to
;' i ':~I~ltStJ.;t&
be appointed governor of Gaul. In the republican period, private individuals occa-
I:""., :•. ",fli\m
sionally financed ludi, which were a one-time event (as opposed to the regular , .••••••. , ,joiI

ISO Spectacles were not held at night because of the absence of good artificial lighting; see note 42 of this chapter.
"'I'"""
151These six celebrations were: Ludi Megalenses (Apri14-IO), Ludi Cereales, Ludi Florales (April 28-May 3),
Ludi Apollinares (July 6-13), Ludi Romani, and Ludi Plebeii (November 4-17). These were the celebrations
held in the city of Rome. Other Italian cities had similar holidays with publicly financed ludi. As the Roman >illl1I1II1If '11II
Empire expanded, the popularity of ludi spread to all the provinces. In the imperial period, ludi in the provinces "'11Il/l!ll~IIL1lIIe
were often dedicated to the cult (or worship) of the emperor; on this cult, see selection 429. .lll::Jmqll~~;"
152Sulla: see note 114 of Chapter VIr. ·IIIIWlIl1~IC:l~. •

153 spectacle: Latin spectare = "to look at," "to observe." 'Imlllll~~:;;;a",
:·~~i.~I'
JlJ~I~"1!.QIfi!
1540ur earliest date for state-funded gladatorial combats is 42 B.C.
155Usually the aedile would negotiate a rental contract with a man who owned a company of actors or a team of
chariot drivers. And since many actors and drivers were slaves, the team owner quite literally owned them.
156Politicians thought this money was well invested. If the aedile went on to be praetor or consul, he was also
assured of a post as a provincial governor. And in the provinces he would try to fill up his empty purse by ~:tlImllru

extorting money from the people he had been assigned to protect. Consider Verres's activities in Sicily, described ..•.~~','t.kl;;:"i!l

by Cicero in selection 321. ••JJlrJji ,·•• ~lt

 Spectacles 331

annually scheduled ludi financed by the Senate). In the imperial period, the ludi
produced with senatorial allotments were often eclipsed in size and lavishness by
ludi produced with funds from the imperial family.

Caesar's Games
Roman politicians of the republican period, always from the upper-class, promoted a
system in which the presentation of entertainment became one method of currying
favor and winning votes. For their part, the lower-class expected to be entertained
and used the games, moreover, as an opportunity to express approval or disapproval
of politicians or policy. In fact, the late republican politician Cicero wrote that the
Roman people made their will known in three locations-public meetings (con-
r/ones), popular voting assemblies (comitia), and spectacles (/udi and gladiatorial
shows)-and that they expressed themselves most honestly at the spectacles (Speech
in Defense of Sestius, 50.106). The upper-class therefore strove for a balance between
their need to support the spectacles so essential to their political survival, and their
;ear of mass gatherings where discontent might fester. For the most part, the political
advantages of providing entertainment outweighed the threat of civil disturbance
erupting in the emotionally charged atmosphere of the games.
The following passage describes Julius Caesar's presentation of public entertain-
Tlent in 65 B.C., the year of his aedileship. As a publicly elected magistrate, he was
-esponsible for the production of ludi for state holidays. For these, he used the public
:~nds allotted by the Senate, with perhaps an addition of some personal funds, and
arranged for the requisite theater events, "hunts," and chariot races. As a private
citizen, he also, in the same year, arranged a gladiatorial show at his own expense.
-1e occasion for this display of 320 pairs of gladiators was a memorial event honor-
~g Caesar's dead father. Although this particular event was privately financed, Cae-
:::; undoubtedly hoped to gain political popularity for staging it, even as he gained
= opularitv for the successful production of the state-financed /udi. The large number
~: gladiators at his show worried his political enemies, who feared either that the
~ adiators he had hired to fight in Rome might be emboldened by their numbers to
'-: .olt, 157 or that Caesar might be gathering a private army to stage a coup d'etat.

:-; Suetonius, The Lives of the Caesars: Julius Caesar 10

~_~ing his aedileship, Caesar ... arranged wild animal "hunts" and theatrical performances,
o ::_etimes with the help of his colleague, Marcus Bibulus, sometimes on his own.158 . . . He also
.r: .nged a gladiatorial exhibition, but with somewhat fewer pairs of gladiators than he had originally
: o:_::ed. For since the group he had hired was so large, and their sheer number had terrified his
0: :::al enemies, these enemies passed legislation restricting the number of gladiators which anyone
. .; allowed to keep in Rome.

- .: -3 B.C., gladiators in Italy, led by Spartacus, revolted and stirred up an ill-fated war in which thousands of
_ ~, participated. See the introduction to selection 219.
: .e sar and Marcus Calpumius Bibulus were the two curule aediles in 65 B.C. The two plebeian aediles were
__ 0 vergilius Balbus and Quintus Tullius Cicero; on Quintus Cicero, see selections 25,69,70,227, and 3180
332 LEISURE AND ENTERTAINMENT

Nero's Games
Once the emperor Tiberius had transferred the election of magistrates from the p': = _-
lar assemblies to the Senate.i>? aspiring and ambitious politicians no longer :"c::: ~
reason to court the favor of the masses by arranging lavish public spectac e:
Although aediles and praetors continued to execute their duties in this area, the ~::"
became a burdensome and largely ungratifying one. Moreover the emperor" -:::-
stricted the opportunities that private individuals had to produce spectacles. The. c :::
not want any potential rival to win the affections of the people and build support TD- :.
coup d'etat.16o Instead they themselves exploited the political advantages of er:=--
taining the masses and sponsored extravagant new games. Nero, who was ernpec -
from A.D. 54 to 68 and who had a personal interest in performances and comp~:-
tions, was particularly generous with the time and money he devoted to pub :::
spectacles.

378 Suetonius, The Lives of the Caesars: Nero 11. ~:

Nero presented a large number of different types of entertainments: youth athletic meets, chari; :
races, theatrical performances, and gladiatorial shows. At the youth meets he allowed even old rne;
of consular rank and elderly matrons to take part. 161 At the chariot races he assigned to the equestria;
class'<' special boxes, separate from the ordinary seats. He even arranged for races of four-came.
chariots. At the theatrical performances ... when Afranius's pJay163 The Fire was staged, tr.e
actors were allowed to keep the furniture which they had snatched from the burning house. 164Ar.;
throughout the entire period of the Greatest Games.ts> gifts were distributed among the people:
every single day a thousand birds, all different kinds, were given away, as well as numerous foo;
baskets and vouchers for grain, clothing, gold, silver, precious stones, pearls, paintings, slaves.
horses, mules, even for tamed wild animals, and, finally, for ships, apartment buildings, and farms.
Nero himself watched these plays from the edge of the stage.
At the gladiatorial show, which he had staged in the wooden amphitheater near the Campus
Martius (the amphitheater had been built in just twelve months), 166he allowed no one to be killed.
not even convicted criminals .167 . . . He staged a sea battle on an artificial saltwater lake with sea
monsters swimming in it. He also staged some Greek ballets with young Greek dancers to each of

159See selection 271.

160Similarly, the emperors did not allow military leaders to celebrate triumphs; see the introduction to selectior;
293.
1610n Nero's encouragement of citizens to perform, see selection 380.
162Perhaps because the equestrian class had originally had "horsey" associations; see note 12 of Chapter 1.
163 Lucius Afranius: a playwright who had lived about 200 years earlier.
164Apparently a building had actually been set on fire during the performance. The Roman audience dernande ;
realism.
165Nero had inaugurated these games and given them the name "Greatest."
1660n the location of the Campus Martius, see map 1. In Rome's earliest period, gladiatorial events were held ic-.
the open area of the Forum, with standing room only for the spectators. An amphitheater was a circular seating
structure built around an arena where the events took place. (For the definition of arena, see note 46 of th..
chapter.) Rome's most famous amphitheater is the Colosseum, which was completed in A.D. 80, twelve year,
after Nero's death. It was called by the Romans not Colosseum but Flavian Amphitheater since the emperors wh;
built it were of the Flavius family.
1670n the use of convicted criminals in these events, see selections 6, 224, and 398.
 Spectacles 333

whom he granted a certificate of Roman citizenship when their performance was over. Among these
Greek ballets was one in which a bull actually mounted Pasiphae who was concealed in a wooden
= ~ DU- cow--or that's what many of the spectators believed. 168 In another ballet, Icarus fell when he first
- ~::: a tried his wings, crashed near the emperor's couch, and spattered Nero with blood. 169

- ::: ....
Political Wisdom
Although games, or /udi, had originally been closely associated with the observance
of a religious celebration, they gradually assumed an importance of their own. City
dwellers, who did not feel the respect for Ceres, the grain goddess, which a farmer
1.:- . might, began to think of the Ludi Cereales not as an opportunity to honor Ceres, but as
11 : -' a chance to see chariot races. And politicians were quick to see the political advan-
~'.. tages in the people's love of games. Lavish entertainments won voter support and
might even erase public memory of political blunders, since the voters could forgive a
man's sins if he provided impressive spectacles. In the republican period, the ludi
were often used by the upper class as a political tool to maintain the support of the
lower class. In the imperial period, the emperor did not, of course, have to worry
about winning votes. But he did need to keep the people happy and contented, since
1111I1:' an unhappy populace might riot and demand a new emperor. The theater and the
L:" ~,,:' race-track (circus) continued, as in the time of Cicero, to serve as locations for
""C.;
displays of popular opinion. Indeed, with the suspension of assemblies and voting in
UUle
the first century A.D., the theater and the race-track became the main locations for
i. :.11~
permissible expression of opinion by the lower-classes.V? Selection 169 records an
~:~".'.o.ll\.\.
occasion in A.D. 32 when people in the theater addressed complaints about grain
li:nlllil
shortages to the emperor Tiberius. Although Tiberius was angry at the magistrates for
not keeping the crowd under better control, he nonetheless responded to the com-
~
plaints with an explanation of how he was trying to alleviate the shortage. It was
important to the emperor's public image not only that he finance games, but also that
he appear regularly at the games, listen to the opinions and demands of the crowd,
and respond to these expressions. The emperor thus projected an image of kindness,
accessibility, and tolerance, and the people had the satisfaction of knowing that they
had been heard. This tolerance of controlled dissent-soldiers were stationed in the
theater and circus171-eased tension and helped to avert the threat of a violent
popular uprising, but without actually conceding power to the people. We should
not, however, assume that the crowd expressed only discontent. Many times, perhaps
most times, the emperor's appearance in the theater or circus prompted applause and

:68The subject of the ballet was the myth of Pasiphae and the bull. Pasiphae, wife of King Minos of Crete, was
consumed by an unnatural lust for a handsome white bull. She asked Daedalus, a master craftsman, to build for
ner a beautiful, but hollow, wooden cow. She hid in the cow and waited for the bull. The bull mated with what he
.nought was a cow. Pasiphae became pregnant and gave birth to a monster known as the Minotaur, half-bull, half-
.nan.
C;'> Icarus was the son of the master craftsman Daedalus. Daedalus built two sets of wings from feathers and wax,

,-ld he and Icarus set out on a flight from Crete to Athens, the first men in history to fly. Icarus flew too close to
::ce sun. The wax melted, the wings collapsed, and Icarus plunged to his death. Perhaps the actor playing the role
: " Icarus in this ballet also died. The Romans appreciated realism! The role may have been played by a convicted
.r.minal, sentenced to die in a ballet.
,- 'On the lack of opportunities for free speech, see selections 272 and 273.
-: On the responsibility of the prefect of the city to maintain order at the games, see selection 268.
334 LEISURE AND ENTERTAINMENT

approbation. The masses wanted entertainment and they cheered the mar.
provided it. The emperors therefore increased the number of annual holidavs
ludi, perhaps hoping that these diversions would keep people's minds off prob :,-:
like unemployment or food shortages. Some emperors arranged special one-: -::
shows. When the Colosseum was opened, for example, in A.D. 80, Titus+? arra~~:, =
shows for the occasion that lasted 100 days. And in A.D. 108, Trajan 173 celebratec - .;
military victories in Dacia with 117 days of spectacles.
In the passage below, Fronto174 discusses the political importance of pub 't

entertainments. His comments are, however, a bit misleading. Very few people ,~
any, would have attended all 117 days of Trajan's spectacles. Today, for exarnp.e _
person could attend a movie every day of the year, but no one does (although m2.- . ••
people do watch TV every day). And in a large modern city, there are spectator SPO-5 .:r

events just about every day.l " Will future historians say our century was interes:e : I

only in hot dogs and baseball, or in sex and violence (as modern moralists claim I? :- .,~

ancient Rome, most people worked hard for a living and attended spectacles or .. .~

occasionally. ,~

1;

379 Franta, Elements of History l'

Ii
Because of his shrewd understanding of political science, the emperor-?" gave his attention even t.: "~
actors and other performers on stage or on the race track or in the arena, since he knew that t!'.~ .:!""

Roman people are held in control principally by two things-free grain and shows177-that politic':': ':t::
support depends as much on the entertainments as on matters of serious import, that neglect c:
serious problems does the greater harm, but neglect of the entertainments brings damaging un-
popularity, that gifts178 are less eagerly and ardently longed for then shows, and, finally, that gifts
placate only the common people on the grain dole, 179 singly and individually, but the shows placate
:~:
everyone.
'11;

iilll

The Road to Decadence

In the passage translated here, Tacitus, who lived from about A.D. 55 to 118, inveighs
,
against a public entertainment that the emperor Nero instituted in A.D. 61. Tacitus's "l'
.~
main complaint was that Nero encouraged the participation of Roman citizens in
'Ii'i:;;

172Titus: the second of the Flavian emperors; ruled

173Trajan: emperor A.D. 98-117.
A.D. 79-81.
.-
174Fronto: see Appendix I, and also note 23 of Chapter II.
175And we enjoy 104 weekend "holidays," as well as holidays on Christmas, Labor Day, Fourth of July, and S0
.,.
!JIII
on. ~III

176the emperor: Trajan. '1'Il11

177free grain: the grain dole; see selection 169. Juvenal remarked that the city mob was interested only inpanem
et circenses, "bread and chariot races." He exaggerated the situation, but it is nonetheless true that the people of
Rome were in a unique position. Because Rome headed a vast empire, the state treasury was filled with tribute
and tax money which could be used to provide inhabitants of the city with free grain and free entertainment.

,-
'I~U
Residents in cities and towns in the rest of Italy and in the Empire enjoyed far fewer gifts.
'rllllll
l780n gifts from the emperor, see selection 378.
179Evidemly gifts were sometimes distributed only to people whose names were on the grain dole list. 111:::::;1
 Spectacles 335

these shows.w? Tacitus believed that the appearance of citizens in public spectacles
was yet another symptom of the moral decline of Roman society. His comments
provide insight into Roman attitudes toward public spectacles or entertainments.
Competitive athletics for citizens had a long tradition in the Greek world, the
Olympic Games being but one example.tv' Although very few people could hope to
reach the level of Olympic competition, excellence in athleticsts- was considered an
ennobling pursuit, and therefore the training areas, the palaestrae and gymnasia,
were crowded with citizens aspiring to achieve a reputation for athletic skill. In the
Roman world, however, athletic skill in and of itself brought no glory to a citizen;
only as an applied skill, within a functional or practical context such as battle, was the
athletic excellence of a citizen praised. Physical training was a matter of personal
fitness and preparation for war, not of public display, and the Romans therefore
developed no athletic competitions for citizens. The proper arenas for competition
and excellence were the law courts, the Senate house, and the battlefield; nonfunc-
tional displays of talent were considered mere performances.tv> Since the Romans
viewed athletic, musical, dramatic, and sporting events as forms of entertainment,
rather than as true pursuits of excellence, they thought that to devote oneself to
training for such an event would be a frivolous and improper use of time. A Roman
citizen who appeared on a theater stage would not only be making an undignified
spectacle of himself; he would also be wasting his time. In fact, the serious-minded
Romans disapproved of citizen participation in all public entertainments, includ-
ing musical or theatrical shows, as inconsistent with the dignitas and gravitas of a
Roman.
Yet the Romans were avid spectators! Because they frowned on a citizen making
a public spectacle of himself, most performers were slaves, freedmen, or foreigners.
The Romans were thus curiously ambivalent about their spectacles. They loved
watching theatrical shows, for example, and they appreciated the skill of the actors,
but they looked down on them as shameless, disreputable, and socially unaccept-
able.184
There is another curious feature to the Roman attitude toward public entertain-
ments. Although the Romans enjoyed these entertainments from their earliest history,
nonetheless for many centuries the state assumed a puritanical posture toward them,
asserting that idle activities led to sloth. In the early republican period, no spectator
seating was provided at theatrical or gladiatorial events. At a later period, temporary

180See selection 378: "At the youth meets he allowed even old men of consular rank and elderly matrons to take
part."
181There were many athletic competitions in Greece, of both major and minor dimensions. Most offered
handsome prizes or money to the winner, and athletes therefore traveled on a circuit, from competition to
competition, as do pro golf or pro tennis players today. These athletes were not amateurs, since they earned
substantial sums of money for successful performances; see note 15 of this chapter. The Greeks also had musical,
dramatic, poetic, and rhetorical competitions for citizens.
1820r music, poetry, or drama.
183See Cicero's comments in selection 159 about the difference between an actor and an orator.
184Ummidia Quadratilla was criticized for owning a company of pantomime dancers; see selection 338. The
Julian Laws stated "a husband ... is permitted to kill a pimp, actor, gladiator, criminal, freedman, or slave
who is caught in the act of adultery with his wife;" see selection 77. The same ambivalent attitude existed also in
modern Europe and America until quite recently. Since actors traveled from place to place, they remained outside
society and were looked upon as strange.
336 LEISURE AND ENTERTAINMENT

bleachers were allowed, but they were quickly dismantled at the end of the perfor-
mance. A temporary theater building suited the Roman self-image well; its very
impermanence reminded the citizens of Rome that duty and gravity, not leisure and
frivolity, were the enduring values. The first permanent stone theater in Rome, the
theater of Pompey, was not built until the end of the republican period, in 55 B.c.l85
Yet it was probably the upper classes which promoted the puritanical idea that
frequent attendance at spectacles could produce moral decay, and which prevented,
by senatorial decrees, the construction of permanent theaters. Nor were the senators
necessarily concerned aboutthe moral well-being of the lower classes. It is more likely
that they resisted permanent theaters because they feared civil disturbances (and the
loss of their own power) if masses of common folk assembled in one area.l86
For their part, the lower classes, which had few other forms of entertainment,
attended the spectacles in large and enthusiastic numbers and did not seem to worry
too much about their moral decline. The fact that politicians could curry favor with
the voters by sponsoring lavish games indicates the true feelings of the masses of
people.
As late as the first century A.D., however, Tacitus is still arguing the traditional
aristocratic opinion that spectacles had caused the disintegration of the true Roman
character. However, Tacitus places the primary blame for Rome's decline187 on the
Greeks and on the introduction to Rome of the Greek custom of allowing citizens to
appear as performers and competitors.t'"

185By contrast, towns in southern Italy, which had been settled or influenced by the Greeks, had permanent
theaters much earlier. The town of Pompeii, for example, had a permanent theater by the early second cen-
tury B.C.
In 44 B.C. Julius Caesar was assassinated in the theater of Pompey. (For more information about Pompey,
see note 32 of Chapter IV.) Today's visitor to Rome can dine in Pompey's theater; the Ristorante da Pancrazio, at
92 Piazza del Biscione, occupies its ruins.
J86See Cicero's comments in selection 254 where he compares the disorderly conduct at the contiones to the
Greek practices of sitting at assembly meetings and of holding assembly meetings in theaters.
The upper class had various methods of keeping the lower classes under control. It could, through senatorial
decrees, prohibit or closely regulate gatherings of lower-class people. See, for example, the regulations imposed
on funeral clubs (selection 129) or the worship of Bacchus (selections 435 and 436). And consider Trajan's
prohibition of a fire-fighting collegium in selection 322. A more subtle method of manipulating the lower classes
was to promote a concept of the ideal Roman as someone who was dutiful (Pius), hardworking, and serious-
minded. The upper class claimed that it was preserving ancestral customs, and it concealed its resistance to
political power for the masses by appealing to traditional procedures and virtues. Of course, to an aristocrat who
had been brought up to assume a paternalistic attitude toward the lower classes and to think that the masses were
incapable of governing themselves, public gatherings and moral decline may well have seemed the same thing.
Compare the upper-class promotion of the traditional Roman as a rugged farmer, willing to fight to defend the
land he owned (see selection 194); at a time when few families owned land, this image continued to be fostered
by wealthy property owners as a kind of proof that they were the conservators of ancestral custom and were thus
the proper authorities in the state.
187It was Tacitus's personal opinion that Rome had declined. In many respects, Rome had progressed substan-
tially in the direction of social reform; see selections 52 and 222 to 226. Tacitus, however, is a moralizing author
who laments the passing of the "good old days." See note n of this chapter.
188The Romans viewed Greece as a once great state which had collapsed irretrievably. The Greeks whom the
Romans met were often the moral and intellecrual inferiors of the fifth century Athenians. The Romans earnestly
sought the causes of Greece's decline, since they feared that Rome, too, might decline, and tended to blame on
the Greeks any potential! y harmful changes in the structure of the Roman state.
On anti-Greek sentiment in Rome, see selections 235 and 254.
 Spectacles 337
380 Tacitus, Annals 14.20

In his fourth consulship, with Cornelius Cossus as his colleague.P? Nero instituted at Rome an
entertainment which was to be held every five years and which was patterned after Greek competitive
events. 190 Like all new things, this entertainment received mixed reviews. Some people said that
even Gnaeus Pompeiusl'" had been censured by the older men of his day for building a permanent
theater. For before the building of Pompey's theater, theatrical performances used to be given on a
temporary stage to an audience on makeshift bleachers. And, if you go back farther, the audience
stood while watching plays, so that the people would not, by sitting in a theater, become accustomed
to spending their time in idleness and sloth. The character of the ancient shows should have been
preserved, . . . and no citizen should have felt obligated to compete. But, little by little, our
traditional moral values weakened and then were completely subverted by an imported licentious-
ness, so that we began to see here in our city everything that could corrupt or be corrupted: our young
men were ruined by their eagerness for foreign ways, their enthusiasm for gymnasia, for idleness, for
perverted sex, and all with the approval of the emperor and the Senate, who not only granted
permission for such offensive behavior but even applied pressure on Roman noblemen to disgrace
themselves with stage performances of speeches and poetry. What else was left but for them to strip
naked and put on boxing gloves and train for sports matches instead of for warP92

CIRCUS EVENTS

Chariot racing193 was the oldest and most enduring of the public entertainments.
According to Roman legend, the first public entertainment was a day of chariot racing
planned by Romulus shortly after he founded Rome in 753 B.C. He and his men had
no women for their city, so he invited his neighbors, the Sabines, to come and watch
horse races in the valley where the Circus Maximus was later built.194 While the
Sabine men were intently watching the races, Romulus' men seized and carried off
the Sabine women.195 By the third century A.D., there were eight race tracks in the
vicinity of Rome, and the largest, the Circus Maximus, held 250,000 spectators. There
were race tracks throughout the Empire as well and, even after the fall of Rome in the
fifth century A.D., chariot racing remained immensely popular in the eastern Empire
during the Byzantine period.l?" Chariot racing was a spectator sport, employing
professionals and designed to make a profit for its organ izers. As such, Roman chariot
racing was more similar to modern pro football than to the chariot racing of the

189The year was A.D. 61. The emperor would occasionally assume the office of consul; see selection 267.
190Nero loved Greek competitive events and was eager to participate in them himself. He performed in public as
a lyre player, an actor, and a singer. He even traveled to Greece to compete. At the Olympic Games he entered a
race for ten-horse chariot teams. Although he fell out of the chariot, had to be helped back in, and still failed to
complete the course, he was awarded first prize!
191Gnaeus Pompeius: Pompey.
192for sports matches instead of for war: nonfunctional versus functional applications of athletic skills.
193Chariot racing: Latin ludi circenses (from the Latin circus = "race track"). Before the construction of
permanent arenas, wild animal "hunts" were also held in the circus.
194Circlls Maximus: literally "the largest race track"; for its location in Rome, see map I.
195This famous legendary event is commonly known as "the Rape of the Sabine Women."
1960n the division and fall of the Roman Empire, see note 227 of Chapter X.
338 LEISURE AND ENTERTAINMENT

ancient Olympics. There were four chariot-racing companies in ancient Rome and at
race tracks throughout the Empire: Red, White, Blue, and Green. Each was called a
(actio or "faction." Factions were owned by businessmen, as are football teams
today. The faction owners owned the horses, the chariots, the stables, other equip-
ment, and even the drivers, most of whom were slaves.tv? The aedi Ie or praetor
whose responsibility it was to organize the public entertainment would negotiate
with the owners of each faction a contract to rent the chariots, horses, and drivers for
the duration of the ludi.198 The owners probably received a basic rental fee plus prize
money for races won. Chariot racing was the most exciting of the public entertain-
ments. Spectators appreciated not only the skills of the drivers, but also the spills and
the thrills. The chariots were small and flirnsv.t?? the turns tight, and the drivers
ruthless. Accidents were frequent and serious.2oOUndoubtedly the very deadly na-
ture of the races was one of their attractions for some Roman spectators, who came to
the circus expecting and perhaps hoping to see crashes and the broken, mangled
bodies of drivers and horses.
Like modern horse racing, Roman racing attracted members of all levels of
society. Since admission to the ludi was free, the "sport of kings" could be enjoyed by
everyone. Many emperors were personally interested in racing,201 but even those
who were not prudently concealed their disinterest and made appearances at the
Circus Maximus, as British royalty today appears at Ascot. The common people liked
to think that the emperors shared their own interests and amusements. Emperors who
attended races usually received enthusiastic applause from the spectators and a warm
display of public affection.

A Driver's Winning Techniques

A poet of the fifth century A.D., Sidonius Apollinaris, has left us a vivid account of a
chariot race in which one of the drivers was his friend Consentius. In this race, only
four teams competed, but at the Circus Maximus there was room for twelve teams in a
race, three from each faction. Four-horse chariots were the most common, but there
were also races for chariots with two horses, and all the way up to chariots with ten
horses. Sidon ius's account provides valuable information about racing techniques.
Frequently two drivers worked as partners, as they do in this race. The circus, or race
track, had a divider or low wall stretching lengthwise to separate the "up" stretch
from the "down" stretch and prevent head-on collisions. At each end of the divider
was a turning post. There were seven laps in each race and therefore thirteen sharp

I97Compare the status of actors and gladiators. Many drivers continued to race even after they had been
manumitted.
198The Ludi Romani, for example, lasted fourteen days, although chariot races did not take pi ace on each of
those days. The owners of acting and gladiatorial companies probably negotiated similar contracts.
199Do not be misled by Hollywood portrayals, such as the race scenes in Ben Hur. Racing chariots were
lightweight, to minimize the burden on the horses. They were made of wood or wickerwork and were thus easily
broken. The drivers stood, or rather balanced, on narrow floorboards, close to the hindquarters of the horses.
2000n remedies for chariot-racing accidents, see selection 1l3.
20lBoth Caligula and Nero drove chariots, Caligula on private tracks, Nero in public. For Nero's "victory" at the
Olympics, see note 190 of this chapter. Caligula owned a race horse named Incitatus ("Fast Runner") which he
wanted to make consul of Rome, so much did he admire the horse's tal=nts.