[1] Deuteronomy, xxii. 5, a commonplace of anti-stage controversy from Tertullian (de Spectaculis, c. 23) to Histrio-Mastix. Tertullian (loc. cit.) asserts, ‘non amat falsum auctor veritatis; adulterium est apud ilium omne quod fingitur.’

[2] J. Denis, La Comédie grecque (1886), i. 50, 106; ii. 535. The so-called mimes of Herodas (third cent. B. C.) are literary pieces, based probably on the popular mime but not intended for representation (Croiset, Hist. de la Litt. grecque, v. 174).

[3] Livy, vii. 2; Valerius Maximus, ii. 4. 4 (364 B. C.).

[4] Juvenal, x. 81; Dion Chrysostom, Or. xxxii. 370, 18 M.; Fronto, Princip. hist. v. 13. A fourth-century inscription (Bull. d. Commis. arch. comun. di Roma, 1891, 342) contains a list of small Roman tabernarii entitled to locum spectaculis et panem.

[5] The holding capacity of the theatre of Pompey is variously given at from 17,580 to 40,000, that of the theatre of Balbus at from 11,510 to 30,085, that of the theatre of Marcellus as 20,000.

[6] Friedländer, ii. 100; Haigh, 457; Krumbacher, 646; Welcker, Die griechischen Tragödien (1841), iii. 1472.

[7] Juvenal, i. 1; Pliny, Epist. vi. 15; vii. 17; Tacitus, de Oratoribus, 9, 11.

[8] The Sententiae of Publilius Syrus were collected from his mimes in the first century A.D., and enlarged from other sources during the Middle Ages (Teuffel-Schwabe, § 212). Cf. the edition by W. Meyer, 1880. The other fragments of the mimographs are included in O. Ribbeck, Comicorum Romanorum Fragmenta (3rd ed. 1898). Philistion of Bithynia, about the time of Tiberius, gave the mime a literary form once more in his κωμῳδίαι βιολογικαί (J. Denis, La Com. grecque, ii. 544; Croiset, Hist. de la Litt. grecque, v. 449).

[9] Incerti (fourth century) ad Terentium (ed. Giles, i. xix) ‘mimos ab diuturna imitatione vilium rerum et levium personarum.’ Diomedes (fifth century), Ars Grammatica, iii. 488 ‘mimus est sermonis cuiuslibet imitatio et motus sine reverentia, vel factorum et dictorum turpium cum lascivia imitatio.’

[10] Ovid, Tristia, ii. 497:

[11] Hist. Augusta, Vita Heliogabali, 25 ‘in mimicis adulteriis ea quae solent simulato fieri effici ad verum iussit’; cf. the pyrrichae described by Suetonius, Nero, 12. The Roman taste for bloodshed was sometimes gratified by mimes given in the amphitheatre, and designed to introduce the actual execution of a criminal. Martial, de Spectaculis, 7, mentions the worrying and crucifixion of a brigand in the mime Laureolus, by order of Domitian:

[12] Martial, i. 1; Ausonius, Ecl. xviii. 25; Lactantius (†300), de Inst. div. i. 20. 10. Probably the influence of a piece of folk-ritual is to be traced here.

[13] The ‘mimus’ type is exactly reproduced by more than one popular performer on the modern ‘variety’ or ‘burlesque’ stage.

[14] Macrobius, Sat. ii. 7; Cicero, ad Atticum, xiv. 3; Suetonius, Augustus, 45, 68; Tiberius, 45; Caligula, 27; Nero, 39; Galba, 13; Vespasian, 19; Domitian, 10; Hist. Augusta, Vita Marc. Aurel. 8. 29; Vita Commodi, 3; Vita Maximini, 9.

[15] Petronius, Satyricon, liii; cf. Taming of the Shrew, i. 1. 258 ‘’Tis a very excellent piece of work, madam lady; would ’twere done!’

[16] Lucian, de Saltatione, 69.

[17] Juvenal, Sat. vi. 63; Zosimus (450-501 A. D.), i. 6 (Corp. Script. Hist. Byz. xx. 12) ἥ τε γὰρ παντόμιμος ὄρχησις ἐν ἐκείνοις εἰσήχθη τοίς χρόνοις ... πολλῶν αἴτια γεγονότα μέχρι τούδε κακῶν.

[18] This is not wholly so, at any rate in Tacitus, who seems to include the players both of mimes and of Atellanes amongst histriones (Ann. i. 73; iv. 14). For the origin of the name, cf. Livy, vii. 2 ‘ister Tusco verbo ludius vocabatur.’ Besides ludius, actor is good Latin. But it is generally used in some such phrase as actor primarum personarum, protagonist, and by itself often means dominus gregis, manager of the grex or company. Mimus signifies both performer and performance, pantomimus the performer only. He is said saltare fabulas.

[19] Dion Cassius, liv. 17.

[20] Tacitus, Annales, i. 77; iv. 14; Dion Cassius, lvii. 21; Suetonius, Tiberius, 37.

[21] Tacitus, Annales, xiii. 25; xiv. 21; Dion Cassius, lix. 2; lxi. 8; lxviii. 10; Suetonius, Nero, 16, 26; Titus, 7; Domitian, 7; Pliny, Paneg. 46; Hist. Augusta, Vita Hadriani, 19; Vita Alex. Severi, 34.

[22] The pyrricha, a Greek concerted dance, probably of folk origin (cf. ch. ix), was often given a mythological argumentum. It was danced in the amphitheatre.

[23] Valerius Maximus, ii. 6. 7 ‘eadem civitas severitatis custos acerrima est: nullum aditum in scenam mimis dando, quorum argumenta maiore in parte stuprorum continent actus; ne talia spectandi consuetudo etiam imitandi licentiam sumat.’

[24] A. H. J. Greenidge, Infamia (passim); Bouché-Leclercq, Manuel des Institutions romaines, 352, 449; Edictum praetoris in C. I. C. Digest, iii. 2. 1 ‘infamia notatur qui ... artis ludicrae pronuntiandive causa in scaenam prodierit.’ The jurists limited the application of the rule to professional actors. Thymelici, or orchestral musicians, were exempt. Diocletian made a further exemption for persons appearing in their minority (C. I. C. Cod. Iust. ii. 11. 21). The censors, on the other hand, spared the Atellani, whose performances had a traditional connexion with religious rites.

[25] C. I. L. i. 122.

[26] C. I. C. Digest, xlviii. 5. 25. A husband may kill an actor with whom his wife is guilty.

[27] Ibid. xxiii. 2. 42, 44; xxxviii. 1. 37; Ulpian, Fragm. xiii.

[28] Tacitus, Annales, i. 77. An attempt to restore the old usage under Tiberius was unsuccessful.

[29] Caesar was tolerably magnanimous, for Laberius had already taken his revenge in a scurrilous prologue. It had its touch of pathos, too:

[30] Cicero, ad Fam. x. 32; Dion Cassius, xlviii. 33; liii. 31; liv. 2; lvi. 47; lvii. 14; lix. 10; lxi. 9; lxv. 6; Tacitus, Ann. xiv. 20; Hist. ii. 62; Suetonius, Augustus, 45; Domitian, 8.

[31] Suetonius, Nero, 21; Tacitus, Ann. xiv. 14; Juvenal, viii. 198; Pseudo-Lucian, Nero, 9.

[32] Dion Cassius, lxxvii. 21; Hist. Augusta, Vita Heliogabali, 12. Yet in the time of Severus a soldier going on the stage was liable to death (C. I. C. Digest, xlviii. 19. 14).

[33] C. I. C. Cod. Iust. xii. 1. 2.

[34] Cf. p. 38.

[35] Tacitus, Ann. xiv. 20; Juvenal, vi. 60; viii. 183; Martial, ix. 28. 9; Ammianus Marcellinus, xiv. 6. 18; xxviii. 4. 32; Macrobius, ii. 1. 5, 9.

[36] M. Aurelius, Comm. xi. 6; Hist. Augusta, Vita M. Aurel. 15. This refers directly to the circus.

[37] Gibbon, ii. 447; Schaff, v. 49; Dill, 34, 100; P. Allard, Julien l’Apostat, i. 272; Alice Gardner, Julian the Apostate, 201; G. H. Rendall, The Emperor Julian (1879), 106. The most interesting passage is a fragmentary ‘pastoral letter’ to a priest (ed. Hertlein, Fragm. Ep. p. 304 B; cf. Ep. 49, p. 430 B); Julian requires the priests to abstain even from reading the Old Comedy (Fragm. Ep. p. 300 D). He also thinks that the moral layman should avoid the theatre (Misopogon, p. 343 c).

[38] On the critical problem offered by such vitae cf. Prof. Bury in Gibbon, i. l. B. von der Lage, Studien zur Genesius-legende (1898), attempts to show that the legends of St. Genesius (Acta SS. Aug. v. 122), St. Gelasius (Acta SS. Feb. iii. 680), St. Ardalio (Acta SS. Apr. ii. 213), St. Porphyrius (Acta SS. Sept. v. 37), and another St. Porphyrius (Acta SS. Nov. ii. 230) are all variants of a Greek story originally told of an anonymous mimus. The Passio of St. Genesius represents him as a magister mimithemelae artis, converted while he was mimicking a baptism before Diocletian and martyred. It professes to give part of the dialogue of the mime. The legends of St. Philemon (Menologium Basilii, ii. 59; cf. Acta SS. Mar. i. 751) and St. Pelagia or Margarita (Acta SS. Oct. iv. 248) appear to be distinct. Palladius, Vita Chrysostomi, 8, records how the stage of Antioch in the fifth century rang with the scandals caused by the patriarch Severus and other Monophysite heretics.

[39] Tertullian, De Spect., especially cc. 4, 26, 30. Schaff, iv. 833, dates the treatise †200. An earlier Greek writing by Tertullian on the same subject is lost; cf. also his Apologeticus, 15 (P. L. i. 357). The information as to the contemporary stage scattered through Tertullian’s works is collected by E. Nöldechen, Tertullian und das Theater (Z. f. Kirchengeschichte (1894), xv. 161). An anonymous De Spectaculis, formerly ascribed to St. Cyprian, follows on Tertullian’s lines (P. L. iv. 779, transl. in Ante-Nicene Christian Libr. xiii. 221).

[40] Tatian, ad Graecos, 22 (P. G. vi. 856); Minucius Felix, Octavius, 27 (P. L. iii. 352); Cyprian, Epist. i. 8 (P. L. iv. 207); Lactantius, de Inst. div. vi. 20 (P. L. vi. 710), ‘quid de mimis loquar, corruptelarum praeferentibus disciplinam, qui docent adulteria, dum fingunt, et simulatis erudiunt ad vera?’; cf. Du Méril, Or. Lat. 6; Schaff, iii. 339. A remarkable collection of all conceivable authorities against the stage is given by Prynne, 566, 685, &c.

[41] Canones Hippolyti, 67 (Duchesne, 509) ‘Quicumque fit θεατρικός vel gladiator et qui currit vel docet voluptates vel [illegible] vel [illegible] vel κυνηγός vel ἱπποδρόμος [?], vel qui cum bestiis pugnat vel idolorum sacerdos, hi omnes non admittuntur ad sermones sacros nisi prius ab illis immundis operibus purgentur.’ This is from an Arabic translation of a lost Greek original. M. Duchesne says ‘ce recueil de prescriptions liturgiques et disciplinaires est sûrement antérieur au iv^e siècle, et rien ne s’oppose à ce qu’il remonte à la date indiquée par le nom d’Hippolyte’ [†198-236].

[42] Conc. Illib. cc. 62, 67 (Mansi, ii. 16); Conc. Arelat. c. 5 (Mansi, ii. 471); 3 Conc. Carth. cc. 11, 35 (Mansi, iii. 882, 885); 4 Conc. Carth. cc. 86, 88 (Mansi, iii. 958).

[43] The strongest pronouncement is that of Augustine and others in 3 Conc. Carth. c. 11 ‘ut filii episcoporum vel clericorum spectacula saecularia non exhibeant, sed non spectent, quandoquidem ab spectaculo et omnes laici prohibeantur. Semper enim Christianis omnibus hoc interdictum est, ut ubi blasphemi sunt, non accedant.’

[44] 4 Conc. Carth. c. 88 ‘Qui die solenni, praetermisso solenni ecclesiae conventu, ad spectacula vadit, excommunicetur.’

[45] D. C. A. s. vv. Actor, Theatre; Bingham, vi. 212, 373, 439; Alt, 310; Prynne, 556. Some, however, of the pronouncements of the fathers came to have equal force with the decrees of councils in canon law. The Code of Gratian (†1139), besides 3 Conc. Carth. c. 35 ‘scenicis atque ystrionibus, ceterisque huiusmodi personis, vel apostaticis conversis, vel reversis ad Deum, gratia vel reconciliatio non negetur’ (C. I. Can. iii. 2. 96) and 7 Conc. Carth. (419) c. 2 (Mansi, iv. 437) ‘omnes etiam infamiae maculis aspersi, id est histriones ... ab accusatione prohibentur’ (C. I. Can. ii. 4. 1. 1), includes two patristic citations. One is Cyprian, Ep. lxi. (P. L. iv. 362), which is ‘de ystrione et mago illo, qui apud vos constitutus adhuc in suae artis dedecore perseverat,’ and forbids ‘sacra communio cum ceteris Christianis dari’ (C. I. Can. iii. 2. 95); the other Augustine, Tract. C. ad c. 16 Iohannis (P. L. xxxv. 1891) ‘donare res suas histrionibus vitium est immane, non virtus’ (C. I. Can. i. 86. 7). Gratian adds Isidorus Hispalensis, de Eccl. Off. ii. 2 (P. L. lxxxiii. 778) ‘his igitur lege Patrum cavetur, ut a vulgari vita seclusi a mundi voluptatibus sese abstineant; non spectaculis, non pompis intersint’ (C. I. Can. i. 23. 3).

[46] Sathas, 7; Krumbacher, 644. Anastasius Sinaita (bp. of Antioch, 564) in his tract, Adversus Monophysitas ac Monothelitas (Mai, Coll. Nov. Script. Vet. vii. 202), speaks of the συγγράμματα of the Arians as θυμελικὰς βίβλους, and calls the Arian Eunomius πρωτοστάτης τῆς Ἀρείου θυμελικῆς ὀρχήστρας. I doubt if these phrases should be taken too literally; possibly they are not more than a criticism of the buffoonery and levity which the fragments of the Θάλεια display. Krumbacher mentions an orthodox Ἀντιθάλεια of which no more seems to be known.

[47] Alt, 310; Bingham, vi. 273; Schaff, v. 106, 125; Haigh, 460; Dill, 56; P. Allard, Julien l’Apostat. i. 230. The Codex Theodosianus, drawn up and accepted for both empires †435, contains imperial edicts from the time of Constantine onwards.

[48] Spectacula are forbidden on Sunday, unless it is the emperor’s birthday, by C. Th. xv. 5. 2 (386), which also forbids judges to rise for them, except on special occasions, and C. Th. ii. 8. 23 (399). The exception is removed by C. Th. ii. 8. 25 (409) and C. Iust. iii. 12. 9 (469). The Christian feasts and fasts, Christmas, Epiphany, the first week in Lent, Passion and Easter weeks are added by C. Th. ii. 8. 23 (400) and C. Th. xv. 5. 5 (425). According to some MSS. this was done by C. Th. ii. 8. 19 (389), but the events of 399 recorded below seem to show that 400 is the right date.

[49] C. Th. xv. 7. 1, 2 (371); xv. 7. 4 (380); xv. 7. 9 (381). Historians have seen in some of these rescripts which are dated from Milan the influence of St. Ambrose. C. Th. xv. 7. 13 (414) seems to withdraw the concessions, in the interest of the public voluptates, but this may have been only a temporary or local measure.

[50] C. Th. xv. 7. 11 (393); xv. 7. 12 (394); xv. 13. 1 (396).

[51] C. Th. iv. 6. 3 (336) ‘scenicae ... quarum venenis inficiuntur animi perditorum’; xv. 7. 8 (381), of the relapsing scenica, ‘permaneat donec anus ridicula, senectute deformis, nec tunc quidem absolutione potiatur, cum aliud quam casta esse non possit.’

[52] C. Th. xv. 7. 12 (394).

[53] C. Th. xv. 6. 2 (399) is explicit, ‘ludicras artes concedimus agitari, ne ex nimia harum restrictione tristitia generetur.’

[54] C. Th. vi. 4. 2 (327); vi. 4. 4 (339); vi. 4. 29 (396); vi. 4. 32 (397). It appears from the decree of 396 that the ‘theatralis dispensio’ of the praetors had been diverted to the building of an aqueduct; they are now to give ‘scenicas voluptates’ again. Symmachus, Ep. vi. 42, describes his difficulties in getting scenici for his son’s praetorship, which cost him £80,000. They were lost at sea; cf. Dill, 151.

[55] See Appendix A.

[56] C. Th. xv. 7. 5 (380); xv. 7. 10 (385); C. Iust. xi. 41. 5 (409).

[57] C. Th. xv. 7. 8 (381); xiv. 7. 3 (412).

[58] C. Th. xvi. 10. 3 (346). But C. Th. xvi. 10. 17 (399) forbids ‘voluptates’ to be connected with sacrifice or superstition.

[59] A. Puech, St. Jean Chrysostome et les Mœurs de son Temps (1891), 266, has an interesting chapter on the spectacula. He refers to Hom. in Matt. 6, 7, 37, 48; Hom. in Ioann. 18; Hom. in Ep. 1 ad Thess. 5; Hom. de Dav. et Saul, 3; Hom. in Prisc. et Aquil. 1, &c. Most of these works belong to the Antioch period; cf. also Allard, i. 229. In de Sacerdotio 1, Chrysostom, like Augustine, records his own delight in the stage as a young man.

[60] P. G. lvi. 263.

[61] C. I. C. Nov. Iust. cv. 1 (536) ‘faciet processum qui ad theatrum ducit, quem pornas vocant, ubi in scena ridiculorum est locus tragoedis et thymelicis choris’; cf. Choricius, Apology for Mimes, ed. Ch. Graux, in R. d. Philologie, i. 209; Krumbacher, 646.

[62] C. Th. iv. 6. 3 (336); C. Iust. v. 5. 7 (454).

[63] C. Iust. v. 4. 23 (520-3) allows the marriage on condition of an imperial rescript and a dotale instrumentum. C. Iust. i. 4. 33 (534) waives the rescript. It also imposes penalties on fideiussores or sureties of actresses who hinder them from conversion and quitting the stage. For similar legislation cf. Nov. li; lxxxix. 15; cxvii. 4. By Nov. cxvii. 8. 6 a man is permitted to turn his wife out of doors and afterwards repudiate her, if she goes to theatre, circus, or amphitheatre without his knowledge or against his will.

[64] Gibbon, iv. 212, 516 (with Prof. Bury’s additions); C. E. Mallet in E. H. Review, ii. 1; A. Debidour, L’Impératrice Théodora, 59. Neither Prof. Bury nor the editor of the C. I. C. accepts M. Debidour’s dating of C. Iust. v. 4. 23 under Justinian in 534.

[65] Mansi, xi. 943. Canon 3 excludes one who has married a σκηνική from orders. C. 24 forbids priests and monks θυμελικῶν παιγνίων ἀνέχεσθαι, and confirms a decree of the council of Laodicea (cf. p. 24, n. 4) obliging them, if present at a wedding, to leave the room before τὰ παίγνια are introduced. C. 51 condemns, both for clergy and laity, τοὺς λεγομένους μίμους καὶ τὰ τούτων θέατρα and τὰς ἐπὶ σκηνῶν ὀρχήσεις. For clergy the penalty is degradation, for laity excommunication. C. 61 provides a six-years’ excommunication for bear-leaders and such. C. 62 deals with pagan religious festivals of a semi-theatrical character; cf. ch. xiv. C. 66 forbids the circus or any δημώδης θέα in Easter week.

[66] Sathas, passim; Krumbacher, 644.

[67] Jerome, in Ezechiel (410-15) ‘a. spectaculis removeamus oculos arenae circi theatri’ (P. L. xxv. 189); Augustine, de Fide et Symbolo (393) ‘in theatris labes morum, discere turpia, audire inhonesta, videre perniciosa’ (P. L. xl. 639); cf. the sermon quoted in Appendix N, N^o. x.

[68] Ausonius, Idyl. iv. 46; Sidonius, Ep. iv. 12 ‘legebamus, pariter laudabamus, iocabamurque.’

[69] Augustine, Conf. iii. 2, 3 (P. L. xxxii. 683). The whim took him once ‘theatrici carminis certamen inire.’

[70] Aug. de Civ. Dei, ii. 8 (P. L. xli. 53) ‘et haec sunt scenicorum tolerabiliora ludorum, comoediae scilicet et tragoediae; hoc est, tabulae poetarum agendae in spectaculis, multa rerum turpitudine sed nulla saltem sicut alia multa verborum obscoenitate compositae; quas etiam inter studia quae honesta ac liberalia vocantur pueri legere et discere coguntur a senibus.’

[71] Jerome, Ep. 21 (alii 146) ad Damasum, written 383 (P. L. xxii. 386) ‘at nunc etiam sacerdotes Dei, omissis evangeliis et prophetis, videmus comoedias legere, amatoria bucolicorum versuum verba canere, tenere Vergilium, et id quod in pueris necessitatis est, crimen in se facere voluptatis’ (C. I. Can. i. 37. 2).

[72] Orosius, Hist. adv. Paganos (417), iv. 21. 5 ‘theatra incusanda, non tempora.’ On the character of the treatise of Orosius cf. Dill, 312; Gibbon, iii. 490. Mr. Dill shows in the third book of his admirable work that bad government and bad finance had much more to do with the breakdown of the Empire than the bad morals of the stage.

[73] Dill, 58, 137; Hodgkin, i. 930. Salvian was a priest of Marseilles, and wrote between 439 and 451.

[74] Salvian, vi. 31 ‘quae est enim in baptismo salutari Christianorum prima confessio? quae scilicet nisi ut renuntiare se diabolo ac pompis eius et spectaculis atque operibus protestentur?’ The natural interpretation of this is that the word ‘spectaculis’ actually occurred in the formula abrenuntiationis. Was this so? It was not when Tertullian wrote (†200). He gives the formula as ‘renunciare diabolo et pompae et angelis eius,’ and goes on to argue that visiting ‘spectacula’ amounts to ‘idolatria,’ or worship of the ‘diabolus’ (de Spectaculis, c. 4). Nor is the word used in any of the numerous versions of the formula given by Schaff, iii. 248; Duchesne, 293; Martene, i. 44; Martin von Bracara, de Caeremoniis (ed. Caspari), c. 15.

[75] Salvian, vi. 69, 87.

[76] Augustine, de Cons. Evang. i. 33 (P. L. xxxiv. 1068) ‘per omnes pene civitates cadunt theatra ... cadunt et fora vel moenia, in quibus demonia colebantur. Unde enim cadunt, nisi inopia rerum, quarum lascivo et sacrilego usu constructa sunt.’

[77] This point was made also by Chrysostom in the Easter-day sermon, already cited on p. 15.

[78] Salvian, vi. 39, 42, 49.

[79] Sidonius, Ep. i. 10. 2 ‘vereor autem ne famem Populi Romani theatralis caveae fragor insonet et infortunio meo publica deputetur esuries’; cf. Ep. i. 5. 10.

[80] Sidonius, Carm. xxiii. 263 (†460); cf. Ep. ix. 13. 5.

[81] Cassiodorus, Variae, iii. 51 ‘quantum histrionibus rara constantia honestumque votum, tanto pretiosior est, cum in eis probabilis monstratur affectus’; this is illustrated by the conduct of one ‘Thomas Auriga’; Var. ii. 8 ‘Sabinus auriga ... quamvis histrio honesta nos supplicatione permovit’; Var. vi. 4 ‘tanta enim est vis gloriosae veritatis, ut etiam in rebus scenicis aequitas desideretur.’

[82] Schaff, v. 122; Dill, 55. The rescript of Constantine is C. Th. xv. 12. 1 ‘cruenta spectacula in otio civili et domestica quiete non placent; quapropter omnino gladiatores esse prohibemus (325).’

[83] Cassiodorus, Var. iv. 51. Of the mime is said ‘mimus etiam, qui nunc modo derisui habetur, tanta Philistionis cautela repertus est ut eius actus poneretur in litteris’ (cf. p. 4, n. 1); of the pantomime, ‘orchestrarum loquacissimae manus, linguosi digiti, silentium clamosum, expositio tacita.’

[84] Cassiodorus, Var. i. 20, 31-3.

[85] Cf. Appendix A.

[86] Cassiodorus, Var. ix. 21 ‘opes nostras scaenicis pro populi oblectatione largimur.’

[87] Du Méril, Or. Lat. 13, quotes from Mariana, Hist. of Spain, vi. 3, the statement that Sisebut, king of the Visigoths, deposed Eusebius, bishop of Barcelona, in 618, ‘quod in theatro quaedam agi concessisset quae ex vana deorum superstitione traducta aures Christianae abhorrere videantur.’ Sisebuthus, Ep. vi (P. L. lxxx. 370), conveys his decision to the bishop. He says, ‘obiectum hoc, quod de ludis theatriis taurorum, scilicet, ministerio sis adeptus nulli videtur incertum; quis non videat quod etiam videre poeniteat.’ But I cannot find in Sisebut or in Mariana, who writes Spanish, the words quoted by Du Méril. For ‘taurorum’ one MS. has ‘phanorum.’ I suspect the former is right. A bull-fight sounds so Spanish, and such festivals of heathen origin as the Kalends (cf. ch. xi) were not held in theatres. A. Gassier, Le Théâtre espagnol (1898), 14, thinks such a festival is intended; if so, ‘theatriis’ probably means not literally, ‘in a theatre,’ but merely ‘theatrical’; cf. the ‘ludi theatrales’ of the Feast of Fools (ch. xiii). In any case there is no question of ‘scenici.’

[88] Isidorus Hispalensis, Etymologiarum (600-636), xviii. 42 (P. L. lxxxii. 658).

[89] Macrobius, Saturnalia, ii. 1. 5, 9.

[90] Chrysostom, Hom. in Ep. ad Col. cap. 1, Hom. i. cc. 5, 6 (P. G. lxii. 306).

[91] Jerome, Ep. 117 (P. L. xxii. 957) ‘difficile inter epulas servatur pudicitia’; cf. Dill, 110.

[92] Conc. of Laodicea (†343-81) can. 54 (Mansi, ii. 574) ὅτι οὐ δεῖ ἱερατικοὺς ἢ κληρικούς τινας θεωρίας θεωρεῖν ἐν γάμοις ἢ δείπνοις, ἀλλὰ πρὸ τοῦ εἰσέρχεσθαι τοὺς θυμελικοὺς ἐγείρεσθαι αὐτοὺς καὶ ἀναχωρεῖν. Conc. of Braga (†572) c. 60 (Mansi, v. 912), Conc. of Aix-la-Chapelle (816) c. 83 (Mansi, vii. 1361); and finally, C. I. Can. iii. 5. 37 ‘non oportet ministros altaris vel quoslibet clericos spectaculis aliquibus, quae aut in nuptiis aut scenis exhibentur, interesse, sed ante, quam thymelici ingrediantur, surgere eos de convivio et abire.’ It is noteworthy that ‘scenis’ here translates δείπνοις.

[93] Muratori Antiq. Ital. Med. Aev. ii. 847, traces the pantomimi in the Italian mattaccini.

[94] Cf. Appendix B.

[95] Ten Brink, i. 11; P. Meyer in Romania (1876), 260; G. Paris, 36; Gautier, ii. 6; Kögel, i. 2. 191.

[96] Tacitus, Ann. i. 65; iv. 47; Hist. ii. 22; iv. 18; v. 15; Germ. 3; Ammianus Marcellinus, xvi. 12. 43; xxxi. 7. 11; Vegetius, de re militari, iii. 18; cf. Kögel, i. 1. 12, 58, 111; Müllenhoff, Germania, ch. 3. The barditus or barritus of the Germans, whatever the name exactly means, seems to have been articulate, and not a mere noise.

[97] Tacitus, Germ. 2 ‘quod unum apud illos memoriae et annalium genus est.’

[98] Jordanis, de orig. Getarum (in M. G. H.), c. 4 ‘in priscis eorum carminibus pene storico ritu in commune recolitur.’

[99] Tacitus, Ann. ii. 88 ‘canitur adhuc barbaras apud gentes.’

[100] Cassiodorus, Var. viii. 9.

[101] Kögel, i. 1. 122, quoting Paulus Diaconus, i. 27.

[102] Kögel, i. 1. 122; i. 2. 220; Gautier, i. 72; G. Paris, Hist. Poét. de Charlemagne, 50; cf. Poeta Saxo (†890) in M. G. H. Scriptores, i. 268 ‘est quoque iam notum; vulgaria carmina magnis laudibus eius avos et proavos celebrant. Pippinos, Karolos, Hludiwicos et Theodricos, et Carlomannos Hlothariosque canunt.’

[103] Gautier, i. 37; Gröber, ii. 1. 447. The shades of opinion on the exact relation of the cantilenae to the chansons de gestes are numerous.