This module is about the history of public entertainment in the Roman Empire c. 300-600 CE. Students will explore the fascinating textual and material evidence for arena games (gladiatorial combat and wild beast hunts), charioteer racing, the theatre, and civic festivals in late antiquity.
They will analyse the social and political functions of these events in a dizzyingly hierarchical society under an autocratic regime. Such games and festivals may have been intended to support the power of emperors, senators and civic grandees, but these crowd scenes all too easily resulted in expressions of political subversion and social unrest, from derisive chants to rioting and violence.
Students will explore the experiences of the spectators and professional performers, ranging from charioteers and faction leaders to actors and sex workers. Finally, they will consider how Christian churchmen sought to discourage attendance at such sinful—even pagan—spectacles, and replace them with (theoretically!) more wholesome Christian holy days—and whether they were successful in stopping all this fun.