By Alexandria
Seneca writes that consorting with crowds in general is harmful to your character since other people can cause vices to look more appealing. The bigger the crowd, the bigger the danger to you. Being a spectator at the Gladiator games is the most damaging vice to your character since watching the games can cause you do leave greedier, crueler and less human. Aside from the obvious evils present at the games (watching men kill each other without armor or skill), it is also bad since "the young character which cannot hold fast to righteousness must be rescued from the mob because it is too easy to side with the majority" (Seneca, 6). A lot of damage can be done in just a moment of indulgence and one can be corrupted by a neighbor or even a friend if they are into this kind of lifestyle. Seneca believes that you should not associate with those that can negatively impact your moral character and those happen to be people who spectate the gladiator games.
Tertullian writes that the Gladiator games feature one of the greater sins, idolatry. This should be a good enough reason not to attend them as a spectator, but people go anyways. Spectating these games is a sin, and the sin is a lust for pleasure since these spectacles are considered a sort of pleasure. He writes that what occurs in a spectacle is opposed to God since there is no spectacle that is "without violent agitation of the soul" (Tertullian, 83). Like Seneca, Tertullian wrote that one should not only refrain from these sins but should also not associate with those that take part in them. In response to the gladiator games, Tertullian also wrote that "it is not becoming for the guiltless to take pleasure in the punishment of another; rather, it befits the guiltless to grieve that a man like himself has become so guilty that he is treated with such cruelty" (Tertullian, 90). On a similar note, guilty men are not the only ones that become gladiators, sometimes innocent men are condemned to this fate by twisted judges or a weak defense and one should not celebrate this tragedy.
Seneca writes that consorting with crowds in general is harmful to your character since other people can cause vices to look more appealing. The bigger the crowd, the bigger the danger to you. Being a spectator at the Gladiator games is the most damaging vice to your character since watching the games can cause you do leave greedier, crueler and less human. Aside from the obvious evils present at the games (watching men kill each other without armor or skill), it is also bad since "the young character which cannot hold fast to righteousness must be rescued from the mob because it is too easy to side with the majority" (Seneca, 6). A lot of damage can be done in just a moment of indulgence and one can be corrupted by a neighbor or even a friend if they are into this kind of lifestyle. Seneca believes that you should not associate with those that can negatively impact your moral character and those happen to be people who spectate the gladiator games.
Tertullian writes that the Gladiator games feature one of the greater sins, idolatry. This should be a good enough reason not to attend them as a spectator, but people go anyways. Spectating these games is a sin, and the sin is a lust for pleasure since these spectacles are considered a sort of pleasure. He writes that what occurs in a spectacle is opposed to God since there is no spectacle that is "without violent agitation of the soul" (Tertullian, 83). Like Seneca, Tertullian wrote that one should not only refrain from these sins but should also not associate with those that take part in them. In response to the gladiator games, Tertullian also wrote that "it is not becoming for the guiltless to take pleasure in the punishment of another; rather, it befits the guiltless to grieve that a man like himself has become so guilty that he is treated with such cruelty" (Tertullian, 90). On a similar note, guilty men are not the only ones that become gladiators, sometimes innocent men are condemned to this fate by twisted judges or a weak defense and one should not celebrate this tragedy.