On the Shows 11

Summary: The athletic contests share the idolatrous origin, titles, rites, and patrons of the other games.

Textual problem in this passage: the printed text is uncertain or disputed here. See the notes.

Show

Latin text · CSEL 20:13–14

Origo istis de ludorum propinquitate est. inde et ipsi sacri uel funebres instituti aut deis nationum aut mortuis fiunt. perinde tituli: Olympia Ioui, quae sunt Romae Capitolina, item Herculi Nemea, Neptuno Isthmia, ceteri mortuorum uarii agones. quid ergo mirum, si uel apparatus agonum idololatria conspurcat de coronis profanis, de sacerdotalibus praesidibus, de collegiariis ministris, de ipso postremo boum sanguine? ut de loco suppleam [at de loco] communi, pro collegio artium Musicarum et Minerualium et Apollinarium **, etiam Martialium per duellum, per tubam in stadio circum aemulantur, quod utique templum est et ipsum eius idoli cuius sollemnitates agit. sed et gymnicas artes Castorum et Herculum et Mercuriorum disciplinae prodiderunt.

English · Claude translation

Their origin comes from their kinship with the games. Hence they too are instituted as sacred or as funeral, and are held for the gods of the nations or for the dead. Their titles likewise: the Olympian games for Jupiter, which at Rome are the Capitoline; likewise the Nemean for Hercules, the Isthmian for Neptune; the rest are various contests for the dead. What wonder, then, if idolatry befouls the equipment of the contests too, with profane crowns, priestly presidents, attendants from the guilds, and finally the very blood of bulls? To add a word on the place, which they share … for the college of the arts of the Muses, of Minerva, and of Apollo, and of Mars too, they imitate the circus in the stadium with combat and trumpet; and the stadium is surely itself a temple, of the idol whose festivals it celebrates. The gymnastic arts too were brought forth by the disciplines of the Castors, of Hercules, and of Mercury.

About this passage

Source
CSEL 20:13–14 · August Reifferscheid and Georg Wissowa, eds., Quinti Septimi Florentis Tertulliani Opera, Pars 1, CSEL 20 (Prague: Tempsky; Vienna: Tempsky; Leipzig: Freytag, 1890), 1–29 · Latin text: August Reifferscheid and Georg Wissowa (CSEL 20), digitized by Open Greek and Latin, University of Leipzig (csel-dev), CC BY-SA 4.0
Text
As printed in CSEL 20. Manuscript variants and the editor's apparatus are not reproduced; the problem in this passage is discussed in the notes.
Translation
Claude translation (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 · Translated by Claude from the Latin text of CSEL 20; made independently of existing English translations.
Compare
Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 3 (1885) (an older public-domain English translation, whole volume at CCEL; checked against ours only after ours was made)

Notes

Translation notes

  • A word or words are missing in the text (marked **), and the editor deletes at de loco (a repetition), which is not translated; the rendering of this sentence is approximate.

Notes on the original text

  • Digital text corrected (stray letter in the digital text; word split in the digital text): collegia riis → collegiariis; teius → eius.

Cite this passage

Tertullian, Spect. 11 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-spectaculis/11/).

Plain text
Tertullian, Spect. 11 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-spectaculis/11/).

Download citation:BibTeX ·RIS (Zotero, EndNote)

Whole work:BibTeX ·RIS ·Markdown text

Report an error in this passage