Cassiodorus Vivariensis Abbas, Variarum Libri Duodecim

Quantum histrionibus rara constantia honestum. que votum, tanto pretiosior est, cum in eis probabilis monstratur affectus. Charum est enim homini reperisse, ubi aliquid se laudabile non putaverat in- Tenire. Dudum siquidem Thomati aurigaj, ex Orientis partibus advenienti, annonas rationabiles consideratio nostra largita est, donee ejus artem probaremus et animum. Sed quoniam in hoc agone primatum noscitur obtinere, ejusque voluntas, patria derelicta, nostri sedes fovere delegit imperii, menstrua eam duximus largitate solidandum : ne adhuc ambiguum redderemus, quem Italiae dominatum elegisse cognovimus. Is enim frequenter victor per diversorum ora volitavit, plus vectus favore quam curribus. Suscepit partem populi protinus inclinatam, et quos ipse fecerat tristes, laboravit iterum reddere lætiores: modo agitatores arte superans : modo equoram velocitate transcendens a. Frequentia palmarum cum dici faciebat maleficum b, inter quos magnum; praeconium videtut esse ad talia crimina pervenfte. "ecesse est enim ad perversitatem magicam referri, quando victoria equorum meritis non potest applicari. Spectaculum expellens gravissimos mores, invitans levissimas contentiones, evacuatio honestatis, fons irriguus jurgiorum, qnod vetustas quidem habuit sacrum, sed contentiosa posteritas fecit esse ludibrium [ac. lubricum]. Primus enim hoc apud Elidem Asise civitatem Ænomaus fertur edidisse : quod postea Romulus in raptu Sabinarum, necdum fundatis ædificiis, ruraliter ostentavit Italiie. Sed mundi dominus ad potentiam suam opus extollens, mirandam etiam Romanis fabricam in vallem Murciam tetendit Augustus; ut immensa moles firmiter praecincta montibus contineret, ubi magnarum rerum indicia clauderentur. Bissena quippe ostia ad duodedm signa posuerunt. Haec ab bermulis c funibus demissis subita xqualitate panduntur : docentes totum illic, ut putabatur, consilio geri, ubi imago capiti i cognoscitur operari. Colores autem in vicem temporum quadrifaria divisione funduntur; prasinus virenti verno, venetus nubilae hiemi, roseus aestati flammeæ, albus pruinoso autumno dicatus est, ut quasi per duodecim signa digrediens annus integer signaretur. Sic factum, nt naturæ ministeria spectaculorum composita imaginatione luderentur. Biga quasi lunæ, quadriga solis imitatione reperta est. Equi desultorii, per quos circensium ministri missos denuntiant exituros, luciferi præcursorias velocitates imitantur. Sic accidit ut dum se colere astra putarent, religionem suam ludicra similitudine profanarent. Alba lineae non longe ab ostiis in utrumque podium, quasi regula directa, producitur; ut quadrigis progredientibus, inde certamen oriretur : ne dum semper propere conantur elidere, spectandi volup- tatem viderentur populis abrogare. Septem metis f certamcn omne peragitur, in similitudinem hebdomadis reciprocae. Ipsæ vero metæ secundum zodiacos decanos ternas obtinent summitates, quas ad instar solis quadrigæ celeres pervagantur. Rotae Orientis et Occidentis terminos designant. Euripus maris vitrei reddit imaginem, unde illuc delphini aequorei g aquas interfluunt. Obeliscorum quoque prolixitates ad caeli altitudinem sublevantur; sed potior soli, inferior lunae dicatus est : ubi sacra priscorum Chaldaicis signis, quasi litteris indicantur. Spina infelicium captivorum sortem designat : ubi duces Romanorum supra dorsa hostium ambulantes, laborum suorum gaudia perceperunt. Mappa b vero, quae signum dare videtur circensibus, tali casu fluxit in morem : cum Nero prandium protenderet, et celeritatem, ut assolet, avidus spectandi populus flagitaret, ille mappam, qua tergendis manibus utebatur, jussit abjici per fenestram, ut libertatem daret certaminis postulati [ alii, postulandi; alii, postulanti ]. Hinc tractum est, ut ostensa mappa 1 certa videatur esse promissio circensium futurorum. Circus, * a circuitu , dicitur; circenses, quasi circuenses : propterea quod apud antiquitatem rudem, quae necdum spectacula in ornatum deduxerat fabricarum, inter enses et flumina locis virentibus agerentur. Nec vacat quod viginti quatuor missibus b conditio hujus certaminis expeditur, ut diei noctisque horæ tali numero clauderentur. Nec illud putetur irritum quod metarum circuitus ovorum erectionibus exprimatur : quando actus ipse, multis superstitionibus gravidus, ovi exemplo, geniturum se aliqua profitetur. Et ideo datur intelligi, volitantes atque inconstantissimos inde mores nasci, quos avium matribus aptaverunt. Cietera circi Romani longum est sermone decurrere, dum omnia videantur ad causas singulas pertinere. Hoc tantum dicimus omnimodis stupendum, quod illic, supra cætera spectacula, fervor animorum inconsulta gravitate [Jur. forte pravitateJ rapiatur (Vide Cypr. lib. de Spectac.). Transit prasinus, pars populi moeret; præcedit venetus, et potior turba civitatis affligitur : nihil proficientes, ferventer insuitant; nihil patientes, graviter vulnerantur; et ad inanes contentiones sic descenditur, tanquam de statu periclitantis patriæ laboretur. Quod merito creditur dicatum numerosæ superstitioni, ubi ab honestis moribus sic constat excidi. Haec nos fovemus necessitate populorum imminentium, quibus votum est ad talia convenire, dum cogitationes serias delectantur abjicere. Paucos enim 57 ratio capit, et raros probabilis oblectat intentio, et ad illud potius turba ducitur, quod all curarum remissionem constat in- I ventum. Nam quidquid aestimat voluptuosum, hoc et ad beatitudinem temporum judicat applicandum. Quapropter largiamur expensas, non semper ex judicio demus. Expedit interdum desipere, ut populi possimus desiderata gaudia continere.

As rare as steadfastness and an honourable aim are among performers, so much the more precious is a commendable disposition when it is shown in them. For it is a dear thing to a man to have found something praiseworthy where he had not thought to find it. Some time ago, indeed, our consideration granted reasonable allowances to Thomas the charioteer, who came to us from the regions of the East, until we should test his skill and his spirit. But since he is known to hold first place in this contest, and his will, his homeland left behind, has chosen to cherish the seat of our rule, we have decided that he should be secured with a monthly bounty, so as not to leave still uncertain one whom we know to have chosen the dominion of Italy. For he, often a victor, has flown through the mouths of many, carried more by favour than by chariots. He at once took up a faction of the people that was failing, and those whom he himself had made sad he laboured to make glad again, now surpassing the drivers by skill, now outstripping them by the speed of his horses. The frequency of his palms caused him to be called a sorcerer, and among them it seems a great distinction to arrive at such charges. For victory must be put down to magical perversity when it cannot be credited to the merits of the horses. [It is] a spectacle that drives out the most serious morals and invites the most frivolous quarrels, an emptying of decency, a well-watered spring of brawls, which antiquity indeed held sacred, but quarrelsome posterity has made a mockery [another reading: a slippery thing]. For Oenomaus is said to have first put it on at Elis, a city of Asia; afterwards Romulus, at the seizure of the Sabine women, before any buildings had been founded, displayed it to Italy in rustic fashion. But Augustus, lord of the world, raising the work to match his power, stretched a structure wondrous even to Romans across the Murcian valley, so that an immense mass, firmly girt by hills, should enclose [a place] where tokens of great things were shut in. For they set twelve gates for the twelve signs. These are opened with sudden evenness by ropes let down from little herms, showing that everything there, as was thought, is done by design, where an image of a head is known to be at work. The colours, moreover, are laid out in a fourfold division after the seasons: green is dedicated to verdant spring, blue to cloudy winter, red to flaming summer, white to frosty autumn, so that the whole year, as if passing through the twelve signs, should be signified. So it came about that the workings of nature were played out in the contrived imagery of the spectacles. The two-horse chariot was devised as if in imitation of the moon, the four-horse chariot of the sun. The horses of the vaulting riders, by which the attendants of the circus announce that the heats are about to go out, imitate the forerunning speed of the morning star. So it happened that, while they thought they were worshipping the stars, they profaned their religion with a playful likeness. A white line is drawn, not far from the gates, to each podium, straight as if by a ruler, so that the contest should start from there as the four-horse chariots advance, lest, while they always strive in haste to dash one another out, they should seem to rob the people of the pleasure of watching. The whole contest is completed in seven rounds of the turning-posts, in the likeness of the recurring week. The turning-posts themselves have three peaks each, after the decans of the zodiac, and the swift four-horse chariots range around them like the sun. The wheels mark the bounds of East and West. The Euripus gives back the image of the glassy sea, whence sea dolphins swim through the waters there. The tall shafts of the obelisks too are raised to the height of heaven; but the greater is dedicated to the sun, the lesser to the moon; on them the rites of the ancients are indicated by Chaldaean signs, as if by letters. The spina [the central barrier] signifies the lot of unhappy captives, where the generals of the Romans, walking over the backs of their enemies, received the joys of their labours. The napkin, which is seen to give the signal for the circus games, passed into custom by this chance: when Nero was prolonging his lunch, and the people, eager to watch, were demanding haste as usual, he ordered the napkin he was using to wipe his hands to be thrown out of the window, to give leave for the contest demanded [some read 'to be demanded'; others 'to the one demanding']. From this it has come about that the showing of the napkin seems a sure promise of circus games to come. The circus is named from 'going round' (circuitus); circenses as if circuenses, because in rude antiquity, which had not yet brought spectacles into the adornment of buildings, they were held between swords (enses) and rivers in green places. Nor is it without meaning that the terms of this contest are fulfilled in twenty-four heats, so that the hours of day and night should be comprised in that number. Nor let it be thought idle that the circuit of the turning-posts is marked by the raising of eggs, since the performance itself, pregnant with many superstitions, professes by the example of the egg that it will give birth to something. And so we are given to understand that flighty and most inconstant ways are born from it, which they have fitted to the mothers of birds. It would be long to run through the rest of the Roman circus in words, since all of it seems to relate to particular causes. This only we say is in every way astonishing: that there, beyond other spectacles, the fervour of minds is swept away with thoughtless gravity [Jur.: perhaps 'depravity'] (See Cyprian, book On Spectacles). The Green passes, a part of the people grieves; the Blue takes the lead, and the greater crowd of the city is afflicted; gaining nothing, they jeer hotly; suffering nothing, they are gravely wounded; and they descend to empty quarrels as if they were struggling for the state of an imperilled fatherland. This is rightly believed to be dedicated to manifold superstition, since it is plain that there one falls so far from decent ways. We foster these things out of necessity, because of the people pressing upon us, whose wish it is to gather for such things while they delight to cast away serious thoughts. For reason captures few, and a worthy purpose delights rare men, and the crowd is drawn rather to what is known to have been devised for the relief of cares. For whatever it reckons pleasurable, it judges this too should be counted toward the happiness of the times. Therefore let us bestow the expenses; let us not always give according to judgement. It is sometimes expedient to play the fool, so that we can keep in hand the joys the people long for.

Intolerabilis excessus est °, qui supernae majestatis affectat injuriam, et oblitus pietatis, crudelia sectatur erroris. Quem enim speravit veniae locum, qui reverendum contempsit auctorem? Abscedat ritns de medio jam profanas; couticescat poenale murmur c animarum. Versari non licet in magicis artibus tempori bus Christianis (Vide Baron. ad an. Christi 504). Magnitudinis itaque tuae relatione comperimus Basilium atque PraetexUtum, artis sinistrae jamdiu contagione pollutos, in accusationem tui examinis personaram intentione deductos. Super qua re nostram te asseris spectare d sententiam, ut confidentius fiatquod pietatis nostrae mandat auctoritas. Sed nos, qui ne scimus a legibus discrepare, quorum cordi est iu ouh nibus moderatam tenere justitiam, praesenti auctoritate decernimus ut quinque senatoribus •, id est uiagnificis et patriciis viris, Symmacho, Decio, Volusiano , atque Cœliano, nec non illustri viro Maximiano, hanc causam legitima examinatione pensetis. Et per omnia juris ordine custodito, si crimen quod intenditur fuerit comprobatum, ipsarum qnoque legum districtione plectatur, ut rei abditi atque secreti per hoc vindictae genus a culpis talibus arceantur, quos ad leges trahere non potest incerta notitia. De qua re illustri viro comiti Arigerno praecepta direximus, ut omnium violenta defensione submota, si se occulunt, ad judicium protrahat impetitos a, et vobiscum in hac causa residens, nec opprimi faciat innoxios, nec leges sinat evadere criminosos.

An intolerable excess it is which aims at injury to the heavenly majesty and, forgetful of piety, pursues the cruelties of error. For what room for pardon has he hoped for, who has despised the Author who must be revered? Let the rite, now profane, depart from our midst; let the punishable muttering of souls fall silent. It is not permitted to be engaged in magic arts in Christian times (See Baronius, at the year of Christ 504). We have learned, then, from the report of Your Magnitude, that Basilius and Praetextatus, long polluted by the contagion of the sinister art, have been brought to accusation before your tribunal by the charge of [certain] persons. On this matter you declare that you await our decision, so that what the authority of Our Piety commands may be done with greater confidence. But we, who do not know how to depart from the laws, and whose concern it is to hold to a measured justice in all things, decree by the present authority that, with five senators, that is, the magnificent and patrician men Symmachus, Decius, Volusianus and Caelianus, and also the illustrious man Maximianus, you weigh this case by lawful examination. And if, with the order of law kept in every respect, the crime that is charged is proved, let it be punished with the full rigour of the laws themselves, so that hidden and secret offenders, whom uncertain knowledge cannot bring before the laws, may be kept from such crimes by this kind of punishment. On this matter we have sent instructions to the illustrious man Count Arigern, that, once every violent protection by anyone has been removed, he should drag the accused to judgement if they hide themselves, and, sitting with you in this case, should neither let the innocent be crushed nor allow the guilty to escape the laws.