ABSTRACT
In his Confessions, Saint Augustine (354-430 CE) tells the story of a student, Alypius, who was taken to a Roman gladiatorial contest by some acquaintances. Alypius is morally opposed to such spectacles, but agrees to go along, confident in his ability to resist temptation. Although he covers his eyes at first, the sound of the crowd cheering a gladiator’s death rouses his curiosity. When he opens his eyes to look, he is fatally drawn in by the spectacle:
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The spectacle Alypius watches is not mimetic, but Augustine’s account closely follows Plato’s critique of tragedy. Much like Plato, Augustine associates theatre with violence and irrational emotions, with the victory of ‘savage passion’ over reason and orderly thought. Augustine stresses in particular the sensory force of the show. Alypius is roused to curiosity by the roar of the crowd, and is gripped, against all his moral beliefs, by the sight of blood. There is, it would seem, something dangerous about spectacle as such. Alypius goes into the arena a moral man, but leaves it fallen.
