| MARCUS MORAVIUS HORATIANUS PISCINUS |
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NOVA ROMA - Ludi Victoriae 2759 a.U.c |
| In our modern world with its sports
arenas, theaters, dance clubs, and home entertainment centers, with every
thing geared towards keeping people entertained, it might be a little
difficult for us to see how in Roma antiqua all forms of public
entertainment were intended as forms of worship before the Gods. Temple
districts served as theaters. In fact the Senate and People of Rome had
prevented the building of stone theaters in the City in 179, 174, and 154
BCE (possibly in 107/6 as well) on moral and religious grounds. It was not
until 55 BCE that Pompeius Magnus built the first stone theatre in Rome, and
even then it was viewed as sacrilegious. Theater was put on to entertain the
Gods, and this was done by erecting a stage in front of a temple. The temple
doors were then opened in order for the God or Goddess who resided inside
while in Rome could view the show. Two aspects to keep in mind about this
practice. First, temples (aedes) were considered only temporary house of the
Gods when They visited Rome and the Romans thought that it was necessary to
offer the Gods some reason for Them to come to town. So in a way, putting on
theater productions was a means to entice the Gods to lend Their presence to
Rome. The growth of the number of ludi offered at Rome and the length of the
ludi expanding over several days had to do more with this idea of keeping
the Gods in Rome rather than keeping people entertained. The second aspect
of holding theater in front of temples has to do with what it offered people. The temples were usually closed to the public. It was only on festival days that the doors would be opened and that the general populace might then have an opportunity to look inside, from a distance, or be able to offer personal petitions to the Gods (much in the same manner that they petitioned leading citizens of Rome). Theater meant that people would be allowed to stand on the temple steps (not sit), close to the Gods, while plays and dances were being performed. Normally, during a sacrifice, only the elite of Rome would be on the temple steps, the general public below. When theater was performed, the opposite occurred, seats in the front row being provided to senators and other elite, with the rest of the populace taking up their places on the steps to view the entertainment as they stood close to the Gods. Such events afforded only a sew thousand to see a play at any one time, and thus it was probably a very controlled affair as to who got the privilege of standing nearer to the Gods. But this was an important aspect of theater at Rome. Erecting special buildings like a theatre to put on plays might have provided seats for thousands more to attend, and to be seated comfortably, but it also would have meant removing an opportunity for certain classes of Roman to visit the houses of the Gods in a way that just was not usually available to them. The ludi brought the people together with the Gods. That was the salient feature of holding the games. We could compare the ludi to the opera houses of the 19th century. Royalty had their special boxes, the general public had their seats below (although open to the public, not just anyone could attend). Opera and ballet afforded a means for commoners to "rub shoulders" with royalty by attending the same affairs, even though they would still be segregated from the royals. Such events, whether in 19th century Europe or in ancient Rome, served to bond hierarchical society together, only in Roma antiquathe social elite was the Gods. The ludi brought all of Roman society together. For Romans that society included the Gods and deceased ancestors, the Di Manes or Maiores. The social importance of the ludi thus held something more than we would consider with our own entertainment today. Many of the features of Roman ludi we would consider religious rather than social, but you cannot really separate the two in Roma antiqua. So let us consider what the ludi actually involved. For one thing ludi involved grand processions in which images of the Gods were carried through the streets of Rome. When the Romans did build theatres, amphitheaters, the Circus Maximus, the Colosseum, it meant that the Gods had to be brought from the temples to such events, and it was always done in grand style. Ovid described one such occasion where images of the Gods were being brought to the chariot races. In front of the procession there would be choirs of boys and girls, troops of mimes and dancers, musicians, and offerings to be later sacrificed to the Gods, followed by magistrates, senators, and priests. Then came the images of the Gods. Victoria led the Gods with her wings spread out. Images of Victoria were featured at all racing events, as well as for theater competitions. Then in the procession that Ovid described the order was Neptunus followed in turn by Mars, Apollo, Diana, Minerva, Baccus, Castor and Pollux, and finally Venus. "Careful of your language and attend as the Gods pass." We can imagine that as a procession passed through Rome that the crowds would come out to see them, enjoying the spectacle as much as we would today. And then as images of the Gods passed a religious awe would hush the crowds. Not exactly. "When the procession crowded with ivory images of the Gods comes along, be sure to applaud Venus." A cheer would go up at the appearance of each deity in turn rather like the Queen of England might be greeted while passing by in a carriage. Crowd reaction could at times have social, political, or religious implications. During the ludi Apollinares of 45 BCE, Cicero mentions that the crowds withheld their applause when the image of Victoria appeared because they disapproved of Her "undesirable neighbor" (malum vicinum), which was apparently an image of Julius Caesar. Beloved by the crowds as Caesar may have been, he was not yet dead at the time, his apotheosis not yet recognized (until after the sighting of a comet during the ludi held as part of his funeral in the following year). Socially, politically, as the leading man in Rome, he would have been seen in the social hierarchy as the one person who linked the living populace with the Gods above, but it was still inappropriate to place an image of himself among those of the Gods Themselves as these were carried through the City. Cicero does not mention, although it would be very interesting to know, exactly where in the City this occurred. An important consideration with any such procession of the Gods was its route. It was a special honor to have the Gods pass by your house, as that did mean that Their presence (numen) would grace your place of residence (or at least the street on which you lived). Home owners along the route would hold open their doors, setting out tables of food and drink, inviting the Gods to visit, in the same way that they would invite any leading citizen who happened to pass by their homes, and would feel especially honored if ever one did. Again, the route of a procession afforded Romans an opportunity to get close to the Gods in ways that were not usually available. The crowds would press forward, hoping for a chance to touch the images of the Gods – or actually a ribbon or a garment worn by the images, and perhaps to press a written prayer and an offering into the litter that carried the image. Just to come into close proximity to the temple images would be a blessing. And of course the one very special route was the Via Sacra, passing under the Palatine Hill, which was overlooked by the homes of only the very highest elite of Rome. At some festivals the processions carried images of the Gods to the temples of other deities. The Gods were then paying visits not only to the City but also to the homes of one another. Couches would be set out to seat the images; tables placed before them on which offering were set, and of course below them dancers, mimes, and actors performed for the entertainment of the Gods as They feasted. At those festivals where such lectisternia were held, the people were allowed to climb the temple steps in order to place offerings on the tables before the Gods. You have to imagine the scene. Some climbed in a bowed posture of respect, while others climbed on hands and knees, wailing from the emotion of coming into the presence of the Gods. Others stood, pleading their cases, for some beneficent for their families, a dowry for a poor man's daughter, success in a business adventure or in a legal suit, as these occasions offered the Romans a chance to meet face to face, in a sense, with the Gods. A day at the races was not much different, as the images of the Gods were brought to the Circus Maximus, to be seated in their special places of honor. Tens of thousands could then attend at the races or at the arena, just to sit in the presence of the Gods. Bringing the images of the Gods to a theatre or to a racetrack did not necessarily mean that the Gods Themselves would attend. They had to be invited. "Why not arouse Yourself, Hercules, to come and to graciously honor these feats of the festival we hold in Your name; whether to split the clouds with Your discus, or send Your javelin speeding more swiftly than Zephyrs, or whether it please You to lock arms in a Libyan wrestling competition, indulge our ceremonies with Your divine presence." ~ Statius Silvae 3.1.154-58 For this reason the offering of sacrifices thus preceded all entertainment. Billowing clouds of incense wafted through the stands, mixing with the scent of flowers, to create an atmosphere pleasing to the Gods. Food and drink would be offered, inviting the Gods to feast during the performance of plays or athletic competitions. So much focus is placed by modern historians on these kinds of Roman sacrifices that I think it is forgotten that they were really only secondary, preliminaries to the main offering that was in fact the entertainment. The highest form of worship to the Gods was song, and here we have to understand that by song is included dance. Minerva was called "the most virtuous dancer," Hercules was invited by Virgil to "dance at your holy rites with skillful feet," and Propertius, thinking of all that others might ask of Venus, said, "For me it shall be enough if I am able to dance along the Via Sacra in praise of the Gods (3.4.22)." Teams of professional dancers, mimes, actors, and musicians were hired to perform both as part of the procession and during the main event. Professional dancers were slaves, but we should not think on that account that their performance was any lesser form of sacrifice. The Romans took extra care to select only the best performers, and paid high prices for them, just as they went out of their way to acquire exotic incense and fine animals as sacrificial victims. We hear a little about the performances of professional dancers. Their dances reenacted parts of myths or comic tales, the titles of some being "Signore Moon," "Diana Flogged," "Jove's Last Testament," and the comedy of the "Three Hungry Hercules" (Tert. Ad Nat. 15). Some scenes depicting the performance of dancers show people in the stands. They are standing with their hands raised out in front of them. Such scenes are usually interpreted as the people applauding or that they were clapping out the beat for the dancers. However the gesture that we see can also be interpreted as one of offering. The Roman masses were, in a very real sense, offering such performances as sacrifices to the Gods. Along with companies of professional dancers, other companies of dancers were composed of members of the very finest families. "People of the very best lineage and foremost in every city dance, not in the least embarrassed but proud of it (Lucian, De Salt. 79)." For the ludi Romani, as one example, the youths of Rome, divided into companies of boys and girls by age, performed dances. In one festival for Juno that Livy describes, twenty-seven girls of marriageable age, wearing long trains as brides, were specially selected to perform a hymn especially written by Livius Andronicus for the occasion. Upon arriving at the Forum, these girls held the final note while each stamped her one foot in the rhythm of the hymn, and this they continued as heifers were being sacrificed (Livy 27.37). Comparable were the youths and maidens chosen for the choirs that performed the hymn specially written by Horace for the Saeculares that Augustus celebrated in 17 BCE (CIL 6. 32323 Acta Sacrorum Saecularium; Horace Carmen Saeculares). Required was that these children were from parents who were both still living and who were still married to one another in a first marriage, and, no doubt, they came from only the very finest families among the Roman elite. In the same way, the Sali, the dancing priests of Mars, came from only the finest patrician families, and their performances was not simply an entertaining spectacle but instead a solemn act of worship. Dance in every form was considered a form of worship, a very high form of worship, and thus dance formed part of Roman rituals just as much as tibucines were required to play their flutes at every formal Roman ritual. A special form of worship that was offered as part of ludi was theater productions. The plays of Plautus were performed on the Palatine Hill in front of the Temple of the Magna Mater, just as earlier playwrights had their works performed before the temples as act of worship. Competitions were held between playwrights, just as between rival ballet companies, in which the winner won a gold palm. In one such competition, Julius Caesar paid Decimus Laberius 500,000 sesterces to compete against Publilius Syrus in the ludi held in 45 BCE for Venus Genetrix. Publilius Syrus won on that occasion, out of political spite it would seem, for the comments reported of Caesar and Cicero indicate that it was Laberius who was thought at the time to have better pleased the Gods with his comedic farces. Here again our historians focus on such superficial details, neglecting the fact that the very reason such a competition was held was as an act of worship to entertain Venus. We know from some examples that the mere act of writing a play was considered an act of worship, a kind of offering, for not all plays were written to be performed. This was true of the plays written by a friend of Cicero's, as well it seems some of the plays that were written by Seneca the Younger. Composing songs, poems, and plays, about the Gods, to the Gods, is an act of worship, and thus their appearance at Roman ludi has to be understood as a religious act, and not simply as entertainment. Attending along with the processions, the plays, the games, and everything else held during the ludi, Romans also performed private rites in conjunction with the public rituals. On the one hand this was a way for a private individual to participate in the religious aspect of the ludi. The ludi did imply that the Gods would be visiting the City, and so it might be seen that during such festivals the Gods might better hear private prayers. On the other hand, though, private rites were offered to one's ancestors, inviting the Lares to come along to the games. There was then a very religious aspect in this, too, of merely attending the ludi, because one did bring along his and hers Lares. We know that one thing that was done saw Romans bring out the images of their Lares to observe the procession of the Gods as They might pass by the family home. The ludi were a kind of state visit by the Gods to the City, with the entire populace straining to attend. And for the Romans there was no separation between the living and deceased members of a family; the entire family would attend the games. Here, too, the Romans performed prayer and sacrifice, in acts of worship, to invite their Lares to participate in the festivities, to enjoy alongside their living relatives the company of the Gods. At the conclusion of the ludi sacrifices were again offered in thanks to the Gods for Their attendance and participation. Religion framed every aspect of the Roman games. Today we should keep this in mind whether we consider the ludi in an historical perspective or in considering our own practices. Reciting a poem or a play, when offered to the Gods, is a form of worship. Writing poems, composing music, sculpting and painting can all be acts of worship, and of a higher order than is some other forms of worship. Even with your own entertainment, when you go out to buy the latest CD of your favorite artist, if you play it as an offering to the Gods it can be a form of worship. Or if you intend to go out to a concert or to see a film, you can always invite your Lares to attend as well. And one of the most solemn forms of Roman prayer is to dance before the Gods. For some of our newer practitioners of the religio Romana, still uncertain about how to properly perform a Roman ritual or how to recite a Roman prayer, when in doubt, dance. You should also consider participating in online ludi, remembering the religious context that they once had and how today you might include them as a means of inviting the presence of the Gods into your daily life. Enjoy the games, feast in good company, offer worship, and may the Gods be with you. Vale optime in pace Deorum, M Moravius Piscinus Horatianus Flamen Carmentalis Tribunus Plebis |