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The Shows, or De Spectaculis

Tertullian

Chapter 22

About this work

Author: Tertullian

What wonder is there in it? Such inconsistencies as these

‹ Chapter 21 Chapter 23 ›

are

just

such

as

we

might

expect

from

men

,

who

confuse

and

change

the

nature

of

good

and

evil

in

their

inconstancy

of

feeling

and

fickleness

in

judgment

.

Why

,

the

authors

and

managers

of

the

spectacles

,

in

that

very

respect

with

reference

to

which

they

highly

laud

the

charioteers

,

and

actors

,

and

wrestlers

,

and

those

most

loving

gladiators

,

to

whom

men

prostitute

their

souls

,

women

too

their

bodies

,

slight

and

trample

on

them

,

though

for

their

sakes

they

are

guilty

of

the

deeds

they

reprobate

;

nay

,

they

doom

them

to

ignominy

and

the

loss

of

their

rights

as

citizens

,

excluding

them

from

the

Curia

,

and

the

rostra

,

from

senatorial

and

equestrian

rank

,

and

from

all

other

honours

as

well

as

certain

distinctions

.

What

perversity

!

They

have

pleasure

in

those

whom

yet

they

punish

;

they

put

all

slights

on

those

to

whom

,

at

the

same

time

,

they

award

their

approbation

;

they

magnify

the

art

and

brand

the

artist

.

What

an

outrageous

thing

it

is

,

to

blacken

a

man

on

account

of

the

very

things

which

make

him

meritorious

in

their

eyes

!

Nay

,

what

a

confession

that

the

things

are

evil

,

when

their

authors

,

even

in

highest

favour

,

are

not

without

a

mark

of

disgrace

upon

them

!