Ecclesiastical writer in the second and third centuries, born probably about 160 at Carthage, being the son of a centurion in the proconsular service. He was evidently by profession an advocate in the law-courts, and he shows a close acquaintance with the procedure and terms of Roman law, though it is doubtful whether he is to be identified with a jurist Tertullian who is cited in the Pandects. He knew Greek as well as Latin, and wrote works in Greek which have not come down to us. A pagan until middle life, he had shared the pagan prejudices against Christianity, and had indulged like others in shameful pleasures. His conversion was not later than the year 197, and may have been earlier. He embraced the Faith with all the ardour of his impetuous nature. He became a priest, no doubt of the Church of Carthage.
Tertullian's De Spectaculis, written between 199 and 206, explains and probably exaggerates the impossibility for a Christian to attend any heathen shows, even races or theatrical performances, without either wounding his faith by participation in idolatry or arousing his passions. Ironically, however, it is this text that gives a full explanation of the more popular Roman games and festivals. Moreover, a reading of chapter 12 along with an examination of the Bustum Hadriani as delineated within the 'Ichnographia Campus Martius' provides considerable evidence that Piranesi very likely utilized Tertullian's text as a guide in designing the Bustum Hadriani. Although Piranesi does not list De Spectaculis within the 'Catalogo' of Il Campo Marzio dell' Antica Roma, knowledge of the text is implicit within the layout of circuses and funerary buildings of the Bustum Hadriani. Again, the Christian elements of the 'Ichnographia Campus Martius' is suppressed, while the Pagan elements are clearly expressed.
Tertullian's The Apology is listed within within the 'Catalogo' of Il Campo Marzio dell' Antica Roma, specifically referencing the Colonna Lattaria.
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De Spectaculis
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Tertullian's De Spectaculis
2001.01.29
It is becoming more and more clear that Piranesi was well aware of Tertullian's text, and indeed utilized it while planning out the Ichnographia Campus Martius. First it was the passage regarding the Equiria, and now there are passages regarding "munus", a death rite, where death games accompanied the funeral day. It is this new knowledge that explains the two circuses within the Bustum Hadriani.
Since Tertullian is a Christian convert from Paganism, it further fits that Piranesi should implicitly rather than explicitly reference Tertullian. I still have to check the 'Catalogo' to see if Piranesi actually ever does reference Tertullian, but I kind of doubt it.
Campo Marzio circuses with temples
2001.02.05
...Piranesi's initial circus designs which incorporated temples (mostly to Apollo) may be because Piranesi followed the descriptions in Tertullian's The Shows.
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The place where the bodies of the dead were burned and buried under Hadrian
2001.07.18
The Bustum Hadriani of the Ichnographia Campus Martius comprises two circuses flanking an enormous funerary complex, all on axis with the gigantic Sepulchum Hadriani. This design by Piranesi perfectly reenacts the ancient Roman 'munus'.
munus : a service, office, post, employment, function, duty : a work : the last service, office to the dead, i. e. burial : a public show, spectacle, entertainment, exhibition
For formerly, in the belief that the souls of the departed were appeased by human blood, they were in the habit of buying captives or slaves of wicked disposition, and immolating them in their funeral obsequies. Afterwards they thought good to throw the veil of pleasure over their iniquity. Those, therefore, whom they had provided for the combat, and then trained in arms as best they could, only that they might learn to die, they, on the funeral day, killed at the places of sepulture. They alleviated death by murders. Such is the origin of the "Munus."
Tertullian, De Spectaculis
Re: NeoClassical Chili
2005.07.09 15:34
Krautheimer published an essay, "Mensa-Coemeterium-Martyrium" 1960, where he earnestly speculates about the very real possibility that the early "Constantinian" basilicas (aside from St. John Lateran and St. Peter's Vatican) acted as covered graveyards where funeral banquets were held. He also noted how the shape of these basilicas was circus-like. When I read this essay (early 2005), I immediately though of the connection to the 'munus' ritual as related by Tertullian. And, after finding out more about the Mausoleum of Romulus/Circus of Maxentius complex (also early 2005), the "pieces" quickly fell together, particularly the connection of Eutropia to all this.
The Circus of Maxentius has been an unanswered question in my mind for a few years now, and now I think I know why Piranesi 'secretly' printed two different version of the Ichnographia Campi Martii--the Circus of Maxentius is the 'key' to the inversion of the pagan Roman Circus into the Early Christian 'basilica'.
[Piranesi, in La Anticità Romane II (which predates the Campo Marzio publication by four years or so), delineated a "reconstruction" of the Basilica of St. Agnes--compare this with a present aerial view.]
What led me to Krautheimer's essay above was a footnote in R. Ross Holloway, Constantine and Rome, 2004.
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