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De spectaculis

16

1 cum ergo furor interdicitur nobis, ab omni spectaculo auferimur, etiam a circo, ubi proprie furor praesidet. aspice populum ad id spectaculum iam cum furore venientem, iam tumultuosum, iam caecum, iam de sponsionibus concitatum. 2 tardus est illi praetor, semper oculi in urna eius cum sortibus volutantur. dehinc ad signum anxii pendent, unius dementiae una vox est. 3 cognosce dementiam de vanitate: Р»misitв•—, dicunt et nuntiant invicem quod simul ab omnibus visum est. teneo testimonium caecitatis: non vident missum quid sit; mappam putant, sed est diaboli ab alto praecipitati figura. 4 ex eo itaque itur in furias et animos et discordias et quicquid non licet sacerdotibus pacis. inde maledicta, convicia sine iustitia odii, etiam suffragia sine merito amoris. 5 quid enim suum consecuturi sunt, qui illic agunt, qui sui non sunt? nisi forte hoc solum, per quod sui non sunt: de aliena infelicitate contristantur, de aliena felicitate laetantur. quicquid optant, quicquid abominantur, extraneum ab iis est; ita et amor apud illos otiosus et odium iniustum. 6 an forsitan sine causa amare liceat quam sine causa odisse? deus certe etiam cum causa prohibet odisse, qui inimicos diligi iubet; deus etiam cum causa maledicere non sinit, qui maledicentes benedici praecipit. 7 sed circo quid amarius, ubi ne principibus quidem aut civibus suis parcunt? si quid horum, quibus circus furit, alicubi conpetit sanctis, etiam in circo licebit, si vero nusquam, ideo nec in circo.

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The Shows

Chapter XVI.

Since, then, all passionate excitement is forbidden us, we are debarred from every kind of spectacle, and especially from the circus, where such excitement presides as in its proper element. See the people coming to it already under strong emotion, already tumultuous, already passion-blind, already agitated about their bets. The praetor is too slow for them: their eyes are ever rolling as though along with the lots in his urn; then they hang all eager on the signal; there is the united shout of a common madness. Observe how "out of themselves" they are by their foolish speeches. "He has thrown it!" they exclaim; and they announce each one to his neighbour what all have seen. I have clearest evidence of their blindness; they do not see what is really thrown. They think it a "signal cloth," but it is the likeness of the devil cast headlong from on high. And the result accordingly is, that they fly into rages, and passions, and discords, and all that they who are consecrated to peace ought never to indulge in. Then there are curses and reproaches, with no cause of hatred; there are cries of applause, with nothing to merit them. What are the partakers in all this--not their own masters--to obtain of it for themselves? unless, it may be, that which makes them not their own: they are saddened by another's sorrow, they are gladdened by another's joy. Whatever they desire on the one hand, or detest on the other, is entirely foreign to themselves. So love with them is a useless thing, and hatred is unjust. Or is a causeless love perhaps more legitimate than a causeless hatred? God certainly forbids us to hate even with a reason for our hating; for He commands us to love our enemies. God forbids us to curse, though there be some ground for doing so, in commanding that those who curse us we are to bless. But what is more merciless than the circus, where people do not spare even their rulers and fellow-citizens? If any of its madnesses are becoming elsewhere in the saints of God, they will be seemly in the circus too; but if they are nowhere right, so neither are they there.