Letter 7010: VARIAE, BOOK 7, LETTER 10

X. FORMULA OF THE TRIBUNE OF PLEASURES. [1] Although the slippery arts are far removed from honorable conduct, and the roving life of stage-performers may seem capable of being carried away by license, nevertheless antiquity in its restraining wisdom provided that they should not run wholly to excess, since they too were to be subject to a judge. For the presentation of pleasures must be administered under a certain discipline. Let an order of judgment hold the stage-players in check, if not a real one, then at least a shadowy one. Let these affairs too be tempered by the quality of the laws, so that, as it were, honorableness may command the dishonorable, and so that those who do not know the path of upright conduct may live by certain rules. For they devote themselves not so much to their own enjoyment as to the gladness of others, and by a perverse condition, while they hand over dominion over their own bodies, they have rather compelled their souls to serve. [2] It was fitting, therefore, that those who do not know how to govern themselves by a lawful manner of life should receive a regulator. For your post is set, as it were, as a kind of guardian over these flocks of men. For just as those guardians watch over tender ages with applied caution, so by you the feverish pleasures must be reined in with abundant maturity. Carry out by good institutions what our ancestors, it is agreed, discovered through their great prudence. A light desire, even if modesty does not restrain it, is moderated by a sternness announced beforehand. Let the spectacles be conducted ordered according to their own customs, since not even those performers can find favor unless they have imitated some discipline. [3] Wherefore our choice makes you Tribune of Pleasures for that term of office, so that you may carry out all things in such a way as to win to yourself the prayers of the citizenry, lest what is agreed to have been devised for gladness should in your times seem to have been turned aside into faults. Conduct yourself, with your reputation safe, among persons of diminished repute. Love chastity, to whom prostitutes are subject: so that it may be said with great praise: 'He pursued the virtues, who mingled with pleasures.' For we hope that through this sportive administration you may attain to a serious dignity.

X. FORMULA TRIBUNI VOLUPTATUM. [1] Quamvis artes lubricae honestis moribus sint remotae et histrionum vita vaga videatur efferri posse licentia, tamen moderatrix providit antiquitas, ut in totum non effluerent, cum et ipsae iudicem sustinerent. amministranda est enim sub quadam disciplina exhibitio voluptatum. teneat scaenicos si non verus, vel umbratilis ordo iudicii. temperentur et haec legum qualitate negotia, quasi honestas imperet inhonestis, et quibusdam regulis vivant, qui viam rectae conversationis ignorant. student enim illi non tantum iucunditati suae, quantum alienae laetitiae et condicione perversa cum dominatum suis corporibus tradunt, servire potius animas compulerunt. [2] Dignum fuit ergo moderatorem suscipere, qui se nesciunt iuridica conversatione tractare. locus quippe tuus his gregibus hominum veluti quidam tutor est positus. nam sicut illi aetates teneras adhibita cautela custodiunt, sic a te voluptates fervidae impensa maturitate frenandae sunt. age bonis institutis quod nimia prudentia constat invenisse maiores. leve desiderium etsi verecundia non cohibet, districtio praenuntiata modificat. agantur spectacula suis consuetudinibus ordinata, quia nec illi possunt invenire gratiam, nisi imitati fuerint aliquam disciplinam. [3] Quapropter tribunum te voluptatum per illam indictionem nostra facit electio, ut omnia sic agas, quemadmodum tibi vota civitatis adiungas, ne quod ad laetitiam constat inventum, tuis temporibus ad culpas videatur fuisse transmissum. cum fama diminutis salva tua opinione versare. castitatem dilige, cui subiacent prostitutae: ut magna laude dicatur: 'virtutibus studuit, qui voluptatibus miscebatur'. optamus enim ut per ludicram amministrationem ad seriam pervenias dignitatem.