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CHAPTER FIVE
Various kinds of Games listed. The place of their celebration. The Olympic field in the Pisan area. In Rome, mostly the Circus Maximus: also the Theatres and Amphitheatres. The different timing in Greece and Rome.
§ I
It is time that we first list the types of games, and then discuss the things that were required beforehand.
§ II
First, we will list the types of games; I say, list, not intentionally explain, for that will only happen after the discussion of the preliminary requirements. The types of games, however, should first be at least listed and thus briefly shown to the reader, so that he knows what matters they are, for which and concerning which such requirements applied.
§ III
The CONTESTS are as follows:
The race, on foot, on horseback, and with chariots.
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The boxing match.
The wrestling match.
The jumping contest.
The throwing contest with the discus and with arrows.
To this the Romans have added:
The sword fight.
The fight with wild animals.
The naval battle.
And other less remarkable things, which we do not consider worthy of mention.
§ IV
To properly celebrate these games, some things were required in advance, namely: first, a place, in which; second, a time, at which they would be celebrated; third, the preparation, namely the training of the contestants, the invitation of the spectators, the appointment of those who had supreme command, who would be judges and prize-givers, the arrangement of the spectacle area, then the adornment, drawing of lots, and the giving of the starting signal to the contestants; and whatever else we shall encounter.
§ V
The place where the Olympic Games were celebrated (Strabo book 8), was OLYMPIA, the Olympic field, in the Pisan area, about 300 stades from ELIS, located not far from the river ALFEUS, as we showed above.
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This field was surrounded by a wild olive grove. It was of such a vast size that entire battles could be held in it: for there (chapter 1. §. 4.) that great slaughter occurred between the Eleans and Lacedaemonians, in which the latter were defeated, as Pausanias testifies. The entire grove and field, or, what I (Pausanias book 5. & 6.) consider more likely, a large part of it, was called ALTIS from ancient times, as again appears from Pausanias. Within the grove was then a spacious plain, and a naturally prepared playing area, which was called STADION, or race track, in which the other kinds of games, practiced besides the race, could also be held. In the course of time, artificial structures and adornments were added: for there was the great temple complex of JUPITER OLYMPIUS, temples of JUNO, VENUS, various altars of the gods, columns that showed erected treaties and similar great matters, statues in honor of the victors, also the triumphal statue, which preserved in living memory the victory of the Eleans over the Lacedaemonians: there were also various treasuries, and the starting gates, that is, places in which the chariots and horses remained locked up until the signal and permission was given to run, and from where they would then burst out; also turning posts, around which the race took place; then seats for the judges and prize-givers, and a tripod or table on which the wreaths lay, and a hundred more things, which Pausanias and others mention, but which we will not pursue here, because we will be able to find enough of such matters in the Roman CIRCUS, to which we shall immediately proceed.
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§ VI
The CIRCUS MAXIMUS, of which we have previously given some account, was the most common place for the contests, although they were also sometimes held in other theatres. Some state that the shape of that CIRCUS was oval, others serpentine, wide in the middle but tapering at both ends; as the CIRCUS of Constantinople at least had such a shape at the end where the last turning post stood, from which it was also called the serpent. However, the Roman CIRCUS is usually considered to have had the shape that we showed above (Hofman. Universal Dictionary. under the word Circus), namely round at one end, but angular at the other, as it is also depicted on the coins of AUGUSTUS, NERO, TRAJAN, CARACALLA and ALEXANDER.
But even much more clearly by the image that Onuphrius Panvinius has left of it, and can be consulted with him.
For the explanation of this, we will only follow the description of Oudaan, which contains as much as is necessary for our purpose (J. Oudaan, Roman Power, sixth dialogue, p. 377 or 425). Oudaan's words are: “RACE TRACK. This is seen on the coins of several emperors, such as of 2 Augustus, of 3 Nero, of 4 Trajan, of 5 Caracalla, of 6. Alexander, being an oblong building, at the front end with a square, and at the far end with a crescent-shaped round wall closed, rising with uprights and pillars, and above it with a triple gallery; namely that the bottom
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consisted of three rows, or circuits, the middle one of two, and the upper one of a single gallery or circuit, to give spectators access without mutual confusion, for which the seats were distinguished according to each rank and status, among which sometimes the wild animals, were kept in pens or iron cages, to be released and shown in the race area: from the outside the work was provided with shops and trading places; the columns, on which it rested, were worked out with the main images of the gods, and the upper spires, especially above the gates and entrances, were decorated with statues of horses, racing chariots, also of elephants, and other symbolic or historical representations: the entrance, or rather the entrances, are seen on the coins to have been at the end of the side walls, that is, transversely to the square front wall, as well as straight in the middle of that same wall, and in the crescent-shaped wall opposite, where the careful, and in antiquity tireless investigator Onufrius adds two more in the same side walls, a little beyond halfway down the track: in or on the front wall were the places for the racing chariots and horses, starting gates, or also called prisons, because they were kept in them until the given signal for the race; being twelve in number, or depicted with twelve gates, although in the beginning only four, and since then, under Domitian, six have been in use. This regarding the enclosure, in the middle of the field a large obelisk was seen, so an Egyptian needle, or stone spire was called,
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carved from a single stone, and decorated with carvings of the Egyptians, such a one that stood in the great race track one hundred and twenty-five feet high, without the pedestal on which it was placed; on both sides of this stone spire the field was separated lengthwise by a central barrier, namely with a stone wall, about four feet high, and almost twelve feet wide, and thus at the ends with the turning posts (that are three lesser spires on a pedestal, called turning post, of which children have kept the name in the game of marbles) at each end of the race track, enclosed: this wall was with its own name called spine or thorn, either because it, just like the back of a beast, split the field in two, or because, provided with many additions, it showed its decorations as brushes and and feathers; such were first the obelisk and the turning posts; on the surface of the wall three altars, erected for the threefold, that is the great, the mighty, and the powerful gods; a chapel for the Sun; the image of the Mother of the Gods seated on a lion; the images of Chance, of the Victory of Rome; and the altars of some lesser gods: finally some transverse supports supported by two or four columns, on which the dolphins, either for their speed, or in honor of Neptune; and the eggs (that are egg-shaped stone spheres, of various colors) were placed, and what still, according to the occasion of time, or the state of affairs, was judged to serve as adornment or appropriateness.
Such buildings, which in all probability
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have been distinguished according to the time, splendor and power of their builder, are counted by Publius Victor as eight or nine within Rome, and some outside of it: the first built by Tarquinius Priscus, renewed by Caesar and Augustus, and commonly called the Great Race Track, was three and a half stades in length, one stade in width, or four acres of land, covering in the entire outer circumference eight stades, and gave a suitable place for two hundred and sixty thousand people to sit and watch; The inside of the viewing and seating banks was dug out on both sides by Caesar with a ditch, ten feet wide and deep, called by its usual name canal, either to ward off the fury of the elephants, who in some show of Pompeius, had threatened some attack by their greatness and fierceness, not without great fear and confusion of the people, or to show some water games, or water animals in it; as in such a water ditch by Augustus thirty-six live crocodiles were brought in, and killed for a spectacle and amusement of the people: Nero, however, had the canal removed from the Great Race Track, perhaps after he had had a special pool and spectacle place built for it, but afterwards it seems to have been restored to the race track by other emperors and brought back to its old state: one can judge the glory of these buildings, when Rome was in its prime, from some special notes that are mentioned about them; of Claudius, Suetonius testifies that he had the starting gates made of marble stone, and the turning posts covered with gold; of Nero, that he had the entire field of the race track strewn with gold dust
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which Pliny also said of Caligula; and Lampridius of Heliogabalus, that he did the same with gold filings: but this extravagance is to be counted more among the wastefulness of the most licentious, than among the use of adornments of the moderate princes. Under Constantine the orator Nazarius said of the state of the work thus: The elevated galleries and glittering columns give the Great Race Track such an unusual and excellent adornment, that one comes there with less desire to see the spectacles, than to view the place itself. The names of several builders are mentioned, such as of Tarquinius, of Flaminius, of Caracalla, of Alexander, of Aurelian; but only that of Hadrian, who is not mentioned, has preserved its memory on the coins of this in such an inscription 7 YEAR 874 AFTER THE FOUNDATION OF THE CITY, CIRCUS BUILT, that is, In the Year eight hundred and seventy-four of the birth of the City, the Race Track built, where one sees a woman, almost naked, sitting on the earth, holding a chariot wheel with the right hand, and the left arm wrapped around three turning posts; on which coin two things are to be noted, first, the accurate chronology of Hadrian (which was commonly reckoned by the names of the mayors) which is taken here from the beginning of Rome, which by this inscription can show an undisputed time root in many histories: and second the use of the race track, shown by the wheel and the turning posts: a nearly similar representation one has on a coin of Trajan, 8 where the Woman, instead of the wheel, holds the obelisk, painted with signs, in her arm, with the inscription CIRCUS OF TRAJAN. Race track of
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Trajan, whether he also built some new race track, or, what is testified, renewed the Great one from some decay.
§ VII
But if someone also wants to see an image of the other theatres and amphitheatres, playhouses, and round playhouses, in which also the contests, and in particular those that consisted of fighting with gladiators and wild animals, were celebrated, he should turn his eyes to the opposite Theatre of Pompey and the Amphitheatre of Titus: which that of Verona also resembles, which we therefore do not consider necessary to add here. Whoever wants, see it with Mercurialis (Mercurialis, On the Art of Gymnastics, book 3, ch. 4.).
Here you see a multitude of seats one above the other, in whose multitude the AMPHITHEATRE of the city of SAGUNTUM in Spain, now called MORVEDRO, has undoubtedly surpassed many, of which Sanson d'Abbeville, according to the translation of S. de Vries, says (Sanson, world description of Europe, p. 247.): close to the mentioned church, (namely the Main Church, where the head of HANNIBAL, who had so lamentably destroyed this city, was to be seen) one goes up a little way, where one still sees the RUINS of an old AMPHITHEATRE. More than twenty-eight rows of seats are carved one above the other in stone: of which the vaults are so entirely thick and firm, that one would be very hard pressed to shoot them down. But we return to the playhouse of TITUS, which is shown to us by this figure as almost half demolished, so that our eye could reach into it and also the ground plans become visible, but in its entire roundness and elevation we can view it on this coin of TITUS, which Oudaan displays thus (J. Oudaan, 6th dialogue).
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But it will do us the greatest service, if we consider the reasoning that the said Oudaan has set up about the playhouse, as this reveals several rarities, both with respect to the wooden [theatre] of SCAURUS, as the two hanging ones of GAIUS CURIO and so on. And although his speech is long, we cannot fail to insert it here in its entirety.
“Speech. To conclude these spectacles, which are all related to each other, the building of
THE ROUND PLAYHOUSE
will not be added here unjustly: for in this cage many of these boys have been thrown and nurtured; cage, I say, because with this name we still understand a place in which animals are fed or locked up: perhaps derived from the original Latin name hollow, with which this building was called by the Romans; either for its hollowness, from the word hollow (from which the French still call a cellar 'cave'), or for the spaciousness with which it was provided: That otherwise with a Greek name AMPHITHEATRE called, by the nickname of its builder and inaugurator Vespasian and Titus, its splendor and glory have shone abundantly enough in the eyes and wonder of the whole world; and that which now, having retained nothing but some demolished members, and as rough giant bones of such a great body, still makes posterity know on its 10 coins that it has been there; here one can then not deduce otherwise than that one sees it in a round ring, whether then
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it was ring-shaped, or, according to the opinion of Lipsius, a little oblong or oval-shaped, that is, he said, of two playhouses, called theatres, put together.
People. How do I understand this, since I take the theatre for the stage, on which something was shown, and how was then the building that was composed of two plays?
Speech. You are mistaken, theatre is not so much the stage, as the entire spectacle area in which something was shown, or actually, where the spectators, to watch the performances, were placed: not unjustly would one call it in our language the showpiece, as in Latin the viewing place, however mostly taken for the stage, because the performance took place on it; but a name used in such a broad sense, that the thing shown itself is also understood by it; as among others by the apostle, where he, writing to those of Corinth, said: I think that God has displayed us, who are the last apostles, as appointed to death, since we have become a spectacle to the world, and to angels, and to men; which representation, as it derives its property from the performances in the playhouses, we will be able to apply better hereafter: Theatre then means both what is shown, as the place of showing, and also the seat suitable for the performances, at least not unjustly called playhouse by us; just as at Rome the place of showing the stage plays that consisted of farces was called theatre, built by Pompey in a ring shape, and enclosed under the roof, of which the stage itself, or the play-
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scaffold, or podium, placed on one side, occupied about a quarter of the plane, this cut off, and the remaining curving sides of the building straightened, or a little outwardly bent, the AMPHITHEATRE (according to the opinion, I say, of Lipsius) would have consisted of two such joined playhouses, so called, as he points out from the word amphi, that is all around, according to the surrounding, and on all sides joined stairs or seats; but much more naturally according to the unobstructed and all-around widening view, without taking its reflection on the podium. We will proceed, to investigate whether from this roundness the height can be somewhat perceived, of which Ammianus said, that a human face can hardly see the highest top of it: This height shows itself on the coins of Vespasian and Titus exactly one fourteenth part less than in the width; which width taken in a ring shape, according to the appropriateness of the perspective theory must show the legitimate, although curved, other half, and consequently the straightened line, or span, from one extreme side to the other, of which the wall in its entire outer circumference, comprising a measure of one thousand seven hundred and six Rhineland feet, gives according to geometry a legitimate third part in length, that is a straight line, or span, of five hundred and sixty-eight and a half feet (or if the building on the coin is a little oblong, so this measure must extend so much wider); but taken on the roundness and subtracting a legitimate fourteenth part of it, so you have in the height five hundred and twenty-eight feet, and thus the
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testimony of Ammianus cannot be belied; since you must take this measuring of a human eye from someone who is almost at the foot of the building, because otherwise one knows, if the distance is far enough, that one can also see the tops of much higher mountains; and that Ammianus is to be understood thus, the way of speaking he uses not badly indicates, the human sight climbs against it with difficulty, literally said, a human face with difficulty climbs up to it.
People. Indisputable indeed! That I do not say thoughtless, that from a coin, from a statue of an inch wide, one would want to measure the shape of such a large body, and with such an unfounded guess calculate the size of such an immeasurable building.
Speech. And whether this has not been one of the purposes why the coins have had their usefulness, I would not dare to deny completely; for one of two things, either the depiction on the coin has, even in that time, wanted to show the building to the foreign peoples who could not experience coming to view it within Rome, or it has wanted to preserve the memory for posterity, if it, by time, or other accident, came to collapse, as in its own grave: this then it could not, or should not have brought about otherwise, than by showing the sketch of its own quality and proportion.
People. That would be an indisputable prudence of the Romans, who, mistrusting the durability of such a purely riveted work, on which time and fire and steel would bite their teeth to pieces, would think they could entrust the memory and measure of it, to some minor, small,
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lightly exchangeable and loseable coins.
Speech. Namely, because they knew what the multitude could do against one; which had been shown by an uncommonly large snake of Tiberius, who was accustomed to come get food from his hand, that it was killed and eaten by the ants.
People. Is such a height to be seen in the current state?
Speech. The same is still seen, which is wonderful, but above the sinking and sagging to which all such heavy-weight works are subject, not a little has fallen off the top, which has raised the bottom, and much more because of the so many times destroyed and thrown down houses and buildings, which stood at the edge of this monstrosity, so that it has at least lost the straight state of its height: and that Rome has been raised thus, daily experience teaches when digging up many stone statues and old pieces, which are not buried in the earth, but overflowed by the ruins, have remained so covered, and have become leveled with earth by time, or raised with dirt; of which a similar example is the Pantheon, or Temple of all Gods in Rome, where one formerly climbed up with stairs, and now descends with stairs.
People. We see it worked on the outside with various adornments of architecture and sculpture.
Speech. That the playhouses have been provided with much sculpture, appears from Pliny, where he, speaking of the temporary playhouse of Scaurus (that is a building that for the use of the performances for some
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little time had to last and then was taken away again;) said, that there were more than three thousand statues placed between the columns, just as one sees many and various statues on the remains of this of Titus, also of four horse chariots and other glories.
People. I see the top set with round balls or knobs.
Speech. Either for adornment, or for some use.
People. Which then?
Speech. The opinion is that on the upper circumference some poles or masts have been stuck into square holes, to stretch some sails on them, across, to make shade, and to break the hot sunshine, just as such sails, in the spectacles, are often thought of, and that perhaps these knobs served to shore up the masts, or to attach the sails themselves on and to.
People. What has not all been thought up by excess and lust!
Speech. The same sails were first of ordinary sailcloth, shortly after of fine white linen, since then decorated with various colors, afterwards of silk: and finally of purple and gold; for Caesar, in a spectacle of fencers that he gave, made them of silk: of which Pliny said, The supreme commander Caesar covered the entire Roman market, and the sacred road, from his house to the Capitoline hill, which seemed more wonderful than the spectacle itself: But, what surpasses this, of Nero Xiphilinus said, from Dio, to ward off the sun he stretched purple sails through the air, in the middle of which he himself was embroidered with needlework [as the Sun drove the chariot],
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with golden stars around him. With the excess committed in the sails, we will add another not less licentious than artful, employed in the spectacles; This was that they through some fine pipes, sometimes also from the limbs of the statues, made a lovely dew, and like a soft rain, flow on the spectators, of fragrant and heart-refreshing waters, mostly drawn from saffron flowers and soaked in sweet wine, to please the smell, the sight, and the taste at the same time: to which Hadrian, in the funeral games of Trajan, had balm added, in such an abundance that it dripped from the seats: that was the expensive Arabian balm, and probably no other than the precious nard, of which a single glass full was sold for more than three hundred denarii: He publicly celebrated spectacles, said Dio, which were called the Parthian: and in these I think that this wastefulness of Hadrian was employed, in memory that the Eastern lands Arabia, Syria, Parthia, and others, were attached to the Empire by Trajan; since he also distributed to the people, instead of wine or grain or money, after having given them indisputable pleasures, spices: Now, so as not to go through all the parts, both of the timberwork, and of the preciousness of this playhouse, it will be enough, that regarding the former, this place has given a suitable opportunity, without confusion, according to everyone's state and dignity, to seventy or eighty thousand people, to sit and watch the spectacles, and on the upper platform and portals, to no less than ten or twelve thousand, to be able to stand, or to sit on brought seats: and as for the preciousness, the outer work
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was of Tiburtine hard stone; and the inner wall of marble stone, and on the bottom passage some railings decorated with sculpture, and in front of them some round, disk-shaped rollers of ivory hung in golden eyes, to make the wild animals break their strength by the rolling smoothness when jumping up, and to make the jump fruitless; as well as against jumping over some nets, which according to Calpurnius in his time, when the power of the empire was somewhat waning, were of twisted gold, as well as the upper galleries were gilded, are described.
People. You show me such unbelievable and indisputable things, and preciousness, that I greatly fear, whether this entire device is not something else, than the representation in a dream, in which one imagines to oneself the most precious buildings, and glorious vaults, but impossibilities in nature, and things that have no connection in thought; so I also fear or think that these people, who stare blindly into antiquity, imagine a building that they find constructed only in their own imagination, from many gathered pieces, whether they are adornment-like digressions of the poets, or easily believed notes of the historians, who have wanted to bring something wonderful to light.
Speech. This one might think, if it were mentioned by a single or two, but since it rests on the unanimous testimony, and all remains of antiquity and writers, contained and consecutive in a period of more than five hundred years, no slightest doubt can arise about this: for look at that body of Roman greatness
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in all its limbs thoroughly, you will find it everywhere the same from head to toe, as I will subsequently show you on a closer occasion; compared here not unjustly with the representation of a dream, because we now only see the right state of things through a foggy stupefaction: and since we are talking about the playhouse here, it will not be out of the way to add here the note that Pliny kept of two such buildings, but both made to serve for a short time; he then said thus: Twice we have seen the entire city enclosed by the houses of the princes Gaius and Nero, and, lest anything be missing, those of the latter also of gold; but we will not allow two Gaius, or two Neros, here to enjoy the highest glory of fame, since we will show that also their madness has been overcome by the special works of Marcus Scaurus, of which I do not know whether his architecture has undermined the civil morals more, or whether it has been a greater evil in Sulla to have brought about the power of such a stepson, or the banishment of so many thousands of citizens: This one then in his architecture made a work, the greatest of all that have ever been made by human hands, not for a temporary stay, but also as a predestination of eternity: [note that he here calls a temporary stay, the works that for a short time, whether a month, a week, a day, had to last and serve, just as this of Scaurus has been, and then were taken away again:] This was a playhouse; the stage of a threefold height, rested on three hundred and sixty columns, and that in that city which formerly without reproach had not endured six Hy-
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metian marble columns from a most glorious citizen; the bottom part of the stage was of marble, the middle of glass, an unheard of excess, even for the following time; and the upper columns covered with gilded ceilings: the bottom columns thirty-eight feet high: the bronze statues, between the columns, were three thousand: The cavity itself offered space for eighty thousand people; while the Round Playhouse of Pompey, although the city had been enlarged so many times and the people so much more numerous, was enough for more than forty thousand: But also the other equipment was such, of Attalian clothes, and paintings, and the rest of the stage equipment, that the preciousness, which one had over for that day in use, brought to the Tusculan country farm, and this, set on fire by the disturbed servants, was estimated to have been burned for a thousand sesterces. The contemplation of such a wasteful mind, pulls my senses further, and forces them to deviate from their intended path, and to add here another still greater senseless work, made of wood: Gaius Curio, who died in the civil war on the side of Caesar, when he in the funeral ceremony of his father, could not surpass Scaurus by means of power and equipment; for what stepfather Sulla, or what mother Metella did he have, that closest relative of the civil-banishments, or what own father Marcus Scaurus, so many times head of the city, and among the companionships of Marius the bosom of the landscape-robberies; yes, who even with Scaurus could not be compared, since this one certainly had this advantage from that burning, by the things brought together from the whole world, that no one there
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after his madness could equal: Curio then had to take the intellect to his aid, it will be worth knowing what he invented, and to amuse ourselves in our own morals, and to measure our greatness by our measure: He made two very spacious wooden stage buildings next to each other, each on its hinges, hung in a rotating movement and counterbalance; in which both, turned away from each other, so that the plays would not hinder each other, he gave the representations of the midday games; and then again quickly turned, he on the last day, by the coming together of the extreme points and the closing of the corner pieces, made a round playhouse of it, and showed the spectacles of the fencers in it, whereby he carried the Roman people, whom he obliged all the more, around on a few hinges: At what will someone here first wonder? at the inventor or the invention? the master builder, or the client? that someone has dared to think it, or dared to undertake it? to obey, or to command? but above all this is the folly of the people, daring to trust themselves on such an unreliable and deceptive seat: Look, these are they who have conquered the earth, and have become rulers of the whole world; who distribute the peoples and empires, and send their laws to the foreign peoples, and with whom the immortal gods somewhat divide their right, look, here they hang on a certain monstrosity, and rejoice over their own misfortune: what a sluggishness of these souls! or what is there now to complain about the defeat at Cannae, if one wants to remember what evil could happen here? when some cities are swallowed up by an earthquake, it makes a general dejection among people; And look, the entire Roman people, as set on two ships, is carried by two hinges, and sees itself fighting with itself, and can in a single moment come to life, if the monstrosity would just tear itself loose: and thus favor was sought in some popular assemblies to make the distributions of the people hangable; What would this man have been able to do on the speaker's platform? what would he not have dared to endure with those whom he had thus so far persuaded? For if one will tell the truth, the entire Roman people have fought at the grave of his father, as in a solemn funeral game, as two fencers: This his magnanimity he has exchanged, when his hinges began to be tired and dismayed, by closing the work to the shape of a round playhouse; and on the last day, having divided the two stage buildings through the middle, he showed wrestlers, and again with a quick turn pulling the two podiums back, he has on the same day made the victors come forth from his fencers: And yet Curio was not a king, or a commander of the peoples, nor powerful in means, as someone who had nothing to his income than only the discord of the princes. There you hear Pliny, as an eyewitness, speaking about the state of such devices, from his or his father's time; without the construction being composed from the scattered wrecks and driftwood of far-fetched and various writers, we can then, to conclude about our previous amphitheatre, we can here again not do better than the testimony
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of another contemporary, that is Martial, who, borrowing the likeness, not of these Roman, however excellent in splendor and glory, works, but of the pyramids of the Egyptian kings, of the walls of Babylon, of the awesome temple of Diana at Ephesus, of the horned altar of Apollo, of the royal tomb of Mausolus, in short of the most glorious of the seven wonders of the world, finally concludes thus,
“Let all labor now yield to the imperial amphitheatre;
Fame finds enough material, to dedicate its praise to this work alone.”
We then come to the spectacles themselves that were shown in this round playhouse.
People. I see here, on the coin, inside the playhouse dots of people, who seem to be engaged in the spectacle, how can we do better than to join them, descend the stairs, to watch the spectacle?
Speech. But this is not the way to get in, to go over those walls.
People. And since we have climbed up to here, much less to throw ourselves downwards.
Speech. We may then think, that we have become like those flying fibrils, which are called atoms or indivisible particles, which float on their own lightness and are easily carried; all the more, since we see that also the spectators are almost depicted in this state: and rightly so, for whether it does not make a corresponding division between this coarse-bodied building and the shape or size of a human, so no other measure can be kept here, which has come to a dot, or an indivisible particle; is not subject to further reduction.”
§ VIII
Up to here, enough about the place where the games were held: now we will briefly discuss the time at which they were held. I say, in brief, because that the Olympic Games were celebrated after the lapse of four full years, and thus at the beginning of the fifth, has already been shown before (Philippus Pfeiffer, Greek Antiquities, book 1, ch. 50, 51.). While of the Pythian Games it is said that they were first celebrated every ninth, then every fifth year, just as the Isthmian every fifth (Natalis Comes, Mythology, book 5, ch. 2...). But the time of the year at which the Olympic Games were celebrated, we will also show with a word, just to not make much fuss about it, following the footsteps of the famous chronologist Josephus Scaliger. This one now points out to us (J. Scaliger, On the improvement of chronology, book 5, p. 382, 458.) that they were celebrated around the full moon, and around the time that the sun had reached its extreme height and was returning, namely from July 11th to the 16th, for five days. About this Tzetzes says (Tzetzes on Lycophron): The Olympic Games were completed in five days, from the eleventh of the month to the sixteenth. However, beforehand they (the players) were trained for thirty days. For this reason Scaliger says: Otherwise, as we have said, the Olympic game was always celebrated on the full moon; this was the last day of the five-day festival. For on the eleventh the contest began, the fifteenth was the last, on the sixteenth was the judgment.
Book - p. 74
Since there were many games among the Romans, they were also very different with regard to the time at which they were celebrated: for the Secular Games, introduced after the expulsion of the kings, were held only rarely (Kipping, Roman Antiquities, book 2, ch. 6.). For the first time they were held for three days and three nights, but mostly with sacrifices, dances and songs. AUGUSTUS set them at a time of one hundred years. They have also been celebrated by DOMITIAN, SEPTIMIUS SEVERUS and Emperor PHILIPPUS. Annually were repeated the Floralia in the month of May, the Apollinarian Games in July, the Capitoline Games, namely the old ones, in memory of the deliverance from the Gauls, the Consualia in September, the Compitalia in December. The Actian games, however, introduced by order of AUGUSTUS, were held in the manner of the Olympic Games every fifth year at NICOPOLIS: but NERO was the first who introduced the five-yearly game at ROME and held it twice, as we have shown above from Tacitus and Suetonius. DOMITIAN also instituted a threefold five-yearly game, of which, if we remember correctly, we have also already made mention before.
Besides these, the Votive games or promised games were held without a fixed time, as well as the voluntary games of emperors and other great people, which they had held at their pleasure, either to satisfy their own desire, or to satisfy and amuse the people: so that there was almost always a festival and game time, and the people did almost nothing but yearn and desire for the city prefect to let the cloth (as a sign that games were being held) flutter, or to sit lazy and idle at the games.