Roman Imperial Texts: A Sourcebook

22. Games

22 Games While commerce certainly pulled resources from around the world into Rome and Roman Italy, Rome actively sponsored games both in the eternal city and around its empire. As we will now see, the games were more than entertainment; the games functioned to hold the world in Rome’s grip. Artistic and athletic competitions provided a medium through which to connect the Mediterranean world to the mythic web that was so crucial in keeping Roman rule intact. In the year 249 bce, Republican Rome had started the “secular games,” or games of the epoch, which were only to be held every one hundred years, so that no person could see them more than once in a lifetime. The political significance of the games is evident in the fact that they were actually held three times within a century during the Principate. Augustus held them in 17 bce, Claudius in 47 ce, and Domitian in 88 ce. The implicit claim behind any of these instances was that these were games for the world, which only Rome could provide, games that signaled the start of a new age. 96. AUGUSTUS REVIVES THE SECULAR GAMES (17 bce)1§31.4. [Augustus] restored some ceremonies from antiquity that had little by little been eliminated: the augury for [the empire’s] safekeeping, the office of a specially designated priest of Jupiter,2 the goat festival of February 15,3 the secular games, and the neighborhood festivals.4 At the goat festival, he prohibited men without beards from running, and at the secular games, he prohibited youth of either gender from frequenting the night events, unless they 1. Suetonius, Aug. 31.4; my translation of Latin text in Suetonius I, trans. J. C. Rolfe, LCL (London: William Heinemann, 1951). 2. This priest was called the flamen dialis. 3. Lupercalia. 4. Compitalia. 195 were with any adult kin. For the neighborhood Compitalia, he set the precedent that the gods5 should be adorned two times per year, with spring flowers and then summer. 97. CLAUDIUS RECALCULATES THE DATING OF THE SECULAR GAMES (47 ce)6§21.1. [Claudius] often donated food to the people. He staged several events, not only the usual sort in the accustomed places, but also newly developed ones and ones repeated from antiquity, held where no one previously staged them. The games of the dedication of Pompey’s theater, which he had rebuilt after a fire, he initiated from a raised platform in the orchestra after first making prayer in the upper temples and then descending through the middle of the theater while all sat silently.§21.2 He held the secular games, as though Augustus had done so prematurely, not setting them apart for the proper time; though he himself, in his own histories, set forth that when they had been neglected, Augustus, after very carefully following the rationale for the years, brought them back into sequence. Thus the announcer’s message prompted laughter when, according to solemn custom, he gave invitation to the games “which none had seen nor would any see again,” since there were present some who had seen them previously, and some of the actors also who had been part of the former production were producing this one also. 98. DOMITIAN STAGES THE SECULAR GAMES (88 ce)7§ 4.3. [Domitian] produced the secular games, calculating the time not by the year in which Claudius recently [held them], but by when Augustus formerly staged them; on circus day, so that it would 5. Lares Compitales. 6. Suetonius, Claud. 21.1–2; my translation of Latin text in Suetonius II, trans. J. C. Rolfe, LCL (London: William Heinemann, 1914). 7. Suetonius, Dom. 4.3–5; my translation from Latin text in Rolfe, Suetonius II; my bracketed words. 196 | Roman Imperial Texts be easier to reach one hundred races, he shortened the single races from seven to five times around.§ 4.4 He set up a three-part competition to be held every five years for Jupiter of the Capitol, with music, horse riding, gymnastics, and with quite a few more prizes than are now granted. For they were competing in Greek and Latin prose speech, and besides those who sing while playing the lute, there were groups of such singers and instrumentalists; and on the track, there were races actually for young women. He presided over competitions in sandals, with a purple toga in Greek style, wearing...