Letter 3051: As rare as constancy and honorable purpose are among entertainers, all the more precious it is when praiseworthy...

LI. KING THEODERIC TO FAUSTUS, PRAETORIAN PREFECT. [1] Just as steadfastness and an honorable purpose are rare among performers, so the more precious they are, when a commendable disposition is shown to exist in them. For it is dear to a man to have found, where he had not supposed he could discover anything praiseworthy. Some while ago, when the charioteer Thomas came from the parts of the East, our consideration granted him reasonable allowances, until we might test his skill and his spirit. But since he is recognized to hold the foremost place in this contest, and since his will, having forsaken his fatherland, has chosen to cherish the seats of our empire, we have decided that he should be confirmed with a monthly bounty, lest we should still leave in doubt one whom we have come to know has chosen the dominion of Italy. [2] For as victor he has often flitted across the lips of many men, carried more by favor than by his chariots. He at once won over the portion of the populace that was disposed against him, and those whom he himself had made sad, he labored again to render more joyful, now surpassing the drivers by skill, now outstripping them by the swiftness of his horses. The frequency of his palms caused him to be called a worker of evil arts, since among such men it seems to be a great proclamation to arrive at charges of this kind. For it is necessary that recourse be had to magical perversity, when victory cannot be attributed to the merits of the horses. [3] A spectacle that drives out the gravest morals, that invites the most frivolous quarrels, an emptier of honorableness, an overflowing fountain of disputes, which antiquity indeed held sacred, but a contentious posterity has made into a mockery. For Oenomaus is said to have first produced this at Elis, a city of Asia: which afterward Romulus, during the rape of the Sabine women, when the buildings were not yet founded, displayed in rustic fashion to Italy. [4] But the lord of the world, exalting to his own power a marvelous work, Augustus, extended for the Romans as well a structure in the valley of Murcia, so that an immense mass, firmly girded by mountains, might contain it, where the tokens of great matters might be enclosed. For they set up twice six gates, corresponding to the twelve signs. These are thrown open by ropes let down from herm-figures, with a sudden equality, teaching that everything is there conducted, as they supposed, by design, where the image of the head is recognized to operate. [5] The colors, moreover, are distributed in turn according to a fourfold division of the seasons: green is dedicated to verdant spring, blue to cloudy winter, red to flaming summer, white to frosty autumn, so that, as if passing through the twelve signs, the whole year might be signified. Thus it came about that the services of nature were sported with through the contrived imagery of the spectacles. [6] The two-horse chariot was devised in imitation of the moon, the four-horse chariot of the sun. The leaping horses, by which the attendants of the circus announce that the heats are about to set forth, imitate the forerunning swiftnesses of the morning star. So it happened that, while they thought they were honoring the stars, they were profaning their own religion by a sportive likeness. [7] A white line, not far from the gates, is drawn into each podium like a straight rule, so that as the four-horse chariots advance the contest might arise from there, lest, while they too hastily strive to dash one another out, they should seem to deny the people the pleasure of watching. The whole contest is carried out in seven laps, in the likeness of the recurring week. The turning-posts themselves, moreover, in accordance with the decans of the zodiac, hold three summits each, which the swift four-horse chariots traverse after the manner of the sun. [8] The eastern ones designate the boundaries of East and West. The euripus renders the image of a glassy sea, whence the sea-dolphins pour waters into it. The lengths of the obelisks too are raised up to the height of heaven, but the loftier is dedicated to the Sun, the lower to the Moon, where the sacred things of the ancients are indicated by Chaldaean signs as if by letters. The spina designates the lot of unhappy captives, where the leaders of the Romans, walking upon the backs of their enemies, received the joys of their labors. [9] The mappa [napkin], moreover, which seems to give the signal for the races, came into custom by such a chance. When Nero was prolonging his luncheon and the people, greedy for the spectacle as is usual, demanded haste, he ordered the napkin, which he was using to wipe his hands, to be cast out through the window, so as to grant license for the contest demanded. From this it was derived that the napkin once displayed seems to be a sure promise of the races to come. [10] The circus is named from "circuit" (circuitus), and the races (circenses) as if "around swords" (circuenses): for the reason that among rude antiquity, which had not yet brought spectacles into the adornment of structures, they were conducted in verdant places between swords (enses) and rivers (flumina). Nor is it without significance that the condition of this contest is dispatched in twenty-four heats, surely so that the hours of day and night might be enclosed in such a number. Nor let it be thought idle that the circuit of the turning-posts is expressed by the removal of eggs, since that very performance, pregnant with many superstitions, declared after the example of the egg that it would give birth to something. And so it is given to understand that flighty and most inconstant morals are born from there, which they have likened to the mothers of birds. [11] To run through in speech the remaining features of the Roman circus would be long, since all things seem to pertain to particular causes. This, however, we say is in every way astonishing, that there, above all other spectacles, the ardor of minds is carried away with ill-considered seriousness. The green passes by: a part of the people grieves; the blue takes the lead, and at once the crowd of the city is afflicted. Profiting nothing, they fervently rail; suffering nothing, they are gravely wounded, and over empty quarrels men depart as though the safety of an endangered fatherland were at stake. [12] This is rightly believed to be dedicated to numerous superstition, where it is agreed that men so depart from honorable morals. These things we foster out of necessity for the populace pressing upon us, whose wish it is to gather for such pursuits, while they delight to cast off serious thoughts. [13] For reason captivates few, a commendable purpose delights but rare men: rather the crowd is led to that which is established to be devised for the relaxation of cares. For whatever it judges to be pleasurable, this it judges must also be applied to the felicity of the times. Wherefore let us bestow the expenditures, let us not always give from judgment. It is sometimes expedient to play the fool, so that we may be able to retain for the people their desired joys.

LI. FAUSTO PPO THEODERICUS REX. [1] Quantum histrionibus rara constantia honestumque votum, tanto pretiosior est, cum in eis probabilis monstratur affectus. carum est enim homini repperisse, ubi aliquid se laudabile non putaverat invenire. dudum siquidem Thomati aurigae ex Orientis partibus advenienti annonas rationabiles consideratio nostra largita est, donec eius artem probaremus et animum. sed quoniam in hoc agone primatum noscitur obtinere eiusque voluntas patria derelicta nostri sedes fovere delegit imperii, menstrua eum duximus largitate solidandum, ne adhuc ambiguum redderemus, quem Italiae dominatum elegisse cognovimus. [2] 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 laetiores, modo agitatores arte superans, modo equorum velocitate transcendens. frequentia palmarum eum faciebat dici maleficum, inter quos magnum praeconium videtur esse ad talia crimina pervenire. necesse est enim ad perversitatem magicam referri, quando victoria equorum meritis non potest applicari. [3] Spectaculum expellens gravissimos mores, invitans levissimas contentiones, evacuator honestatis, fons irriguus iurgiorum, quod vetustas quidem habuit sacrum, sed contentiosa posteritas fecit ease ludibrium. primus enim hoc apud Elidem Asiae civitatem Oenomaus fertur edidisse: quod post Romulus in raptu Sabinarum necdum fundatis aedificiis ruraliter ostentavit Italiae. [4] 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. bis sena quippe ostia ad duodecim signa posuerunt. haec ab hermulis funibus demissis subita aequalitate panduntur, docentes totum illic, ut putabant, consilio geri, ubi imago capitis cognoscitur operari. [5] Colores autem in vicem temporum quadrifaria divisione funduntur: prasinus virenti verno, venetus nubilae hiemi, russeus aestati flammeae, albus pruinoso autumno dicatus est, ut quasi per duodecim signa digrediens annus integer signaretur. sic factum, ut naturae ministeria spectaculorum composita imaginatione luderentur. [6] Biga quasi lunae, quadriga solis imitatione reperta est. equi desultorii, per quos circensium ministri missus denuntiant exituros, luciferi praecursorias velocitates imitantur. sic accidit ut, dum se colere putarent astra, religionem suam ludicra similitudine profanarent. [7] Alba linea non longe ab ostiis in utrumque podium quasi regula directa perducitur, ut quadrigis progredientibus inde certamen oriretur, ne, dum se praepropere conantur elidere, spectandi voluptatem viderentur populis abrogare. septem metis certamen omne peragitur in similitudinem hebdomadis reciprocae. ipsae vero metae secundum zodiacos decanos ternas obtinent summitates, quas ad instar solis quadrigae celeres pervagantur. [8] Eoae Orientis et Occidentis terminos designant. euripus marie vitrei reddit imaginem, unde illuc delphini aequorei aquas influunt. obeliscorum quoque prolixitates ad caeli altitudinem sublevantur, sed potior Soli, inferior Lunae dicatus est, ubi sacra priscorum Chaldaeicis signis quasi litteris indicantur. spina infelicium captivorum sortem designat, ubi duces Romanorum supra dorsa hostium ambulantes laborum suorum gaudia perceperunt. [9] Mappa vero, quae signum videtur dare circensibus, tali casu fluxit in morem. cum Nero prandium protenderet et celeritatem, ut assolet, avidus spectandi populus flagitaret, ille mappam, qua tergendis manibus utebatur, iussit abici per fenestram, ut libertatem daret certaminis postulati. hinc tractum est, ut ostensa mappa certa videatur esse promissio circensium futurorum. [10] 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 XXIIII missibus condicio huius certaminis expeditur, profecto ut diei noctisque horae tali numero clauderentur. nec illud putetur irritum quod metarum circuitus ovorum ereptionibus exprimatur, quando actus ipse multis superstitionibus gravidus ovi exemplo geniturum se aliqua profiteretur. et ideo datur intellegi volitantes atque inconstantissimos inde mores nasci, quos avium matribus aptaverunt. [11] Cetera circi Romani longum est sermone decurrere, dum omnia videantur ad causas singulas pertinere. hoc tamen dicimus omnimodis stupendum, quod illic supra cetera spectacula fervor animorum inconsulta gravitate rapiatur. transit prasinus, pars populi maeret: praecedit venetus et ocius turba civitatis affligitur. nihil proficientes ferventer insultant: nihil patientes graviter vulnerantur et ad inanes contentiones sic disceditur, tamquam de statu periclitantis patriae laboretur. [12] Quod merito creditur dicatum numerosae superstitioni, ubi ab honestis moribus sic constat excedi. haec nos fovemus necessitate imminentium populorum, quibus votum est ad talia convenire, dum cogitationes serias delectantur abicere. [13] Paucos enim ratio capit, raros probabilis oblectat intentio: ad illud potius turba ducitur, quod ad remissionem curarum constat inventum. nam quicquid aestimat voluptuosum, hoe et ad beatitudinem temporum iudicat applicandum. quapropter largiamur expensas, non semper ex iudicio demus. expedit interdum desipere, ut populi possimus desiderata gaudia continere.