CLAS / HIST 4091 / 5091: The Roman Empire

Reading Handout 8. Attitudes to Spectacle

Reading (8) for Friday November 2, 2007

Reading

LR section 40 (pp. 142-49)

Augustine Confessions 6.8(13) (on the back of this sheet)

Seneca Letter 7 separate handout

Tertullian The Shows at http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf03.iv.v.i.html

Tertullian, the son of a Roman centurion, was born c. AD 160 near Carthage and he remained in North Africa until his death c. 240. He may have been educated as a lawyer and certainly possesses a rich knowledge of the law. Indeed, he uses his gifts of advocacy and rhetoric to great effect in his numerous works promoting the rigorous practice of Christianity. We are going to read a short treatise of his known as “On the Spectacles” in which he vigorously attacks the attendance at spectacles so popular throughout the Roman empire. As we will see from the text, apart from the bible, Tertullian uses mainly his own intellect as his source. In many ways this makes our reading more interesting since his argument derives inspiration from direct experience of the spectacles and from the accumulated lore about their origin and purpose that might have circulated in the streets of Carthage. Eventually, Tertullian joined a sect of rigorist apocalyptic Christians called the Montanists, and he later founded his own group of Tertullianists who held themselves to even higher standards of Christian morality. It is thus natural that Tertullian would oppose anything as “decadent” as the games. This same prejudice should, however, caution us against regarding his rigorous views as typical among the ancients or even among Christians.

To supplement our reading, we will also look at a letter written by the famous literateur Seneca the Younger. Seneca was born in Corduba, Spain in AD 2 and excelled so much as an intellect that he became court tutor and advisor to the emperor Nero, who eventually had him executed in 65. Seneca followed the ancient philosophical school of the Stoics, which was also rigorous in its demands for decorous and unimpassioned behavior. Here again caution is in order, though we know at least that Seneca’s view was not colored by Christian morality.

Finally, we will look at a brief passage from the “Confessions” of Augustine, Bishop of Hippo in Roman North Africa from c. 390-430. The Confessions, a sort of spiritual biography, get us very close to the viewpoint of the average citizen; this is why I have asked you to look at a passage which describes the struggles of Augustine’s friend Alypius, also a Christian, who had his own struggles with a love of spectacle.

Questions

1. What can we learn from these sources about the ways spectacles were conducted: what happened in the theater, on the race course, in the amphitheater?

2. Did spectacles just involve races, plays and combats? What other things would go on to make them a total festival experience? Think of religion, feasting, politics, social cohesion.

3. Does Tertullian lay out the case in favor of spectacles fairly? What do he and Augustine say was attractive about them? What sorts of passions or emotions did they arouse?

4. Were Christians the only ones to object to the games? Did others understand their dangers? Did others understand their benefits?

5. Would Tertullian have been successful at convincing the Christians of his day to stop going to the games? What defense might a Christian have offered for watching them?

6. Does one sense opposition to Rome and Roman culture itself quite apart from horror at the spectacles in Tertullian? Were Rome and spectacles necessarily linked?

7. Were Tertullian’s arguments against the games the same as those we would use today in condemning these events? Are there parallels between the Roman love of spectacle and that in contemporary America?