[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).