Publius Cornelius Tacitus, Ann.  14.20  (ca. A.D. 105): Nerone quartum Cornelio Cosso consulibus quiquennale ludicrum Romae institum est ad morem Graeci certaminis, varia fama, ut cuncta ferme nova. Quippe erant qui Gnaeum quoque Pompeium incusatum a senioribus ferrent, quod mansuram theatri sedem posuisset. Nam antea subitariis gradibus et scaena in tempus structa ludos edi solitos, vel si vetustiora repetas, stantem populum spectavisse, ne, si consideret theatro dies totos ignavia continuaret. Spectaculorum quidem antiquitas servaretur, quotiens praetor sederet, nulla cuiquam civium necessitate certandi. Ceterum abolitos paulatim patrios more funditus everti per accitam lasciviam, ut quod usquam corrumpi et corrumpere queat, in urbe visatur, degeneretque studiis externis iuventus, gymnasia et otia et turpis amores exercendo, principe et senatu auctoribus, qui non modo licentiam vitiis permiserint, sed vim adhibeant, ut proceres Romani specie orationum et carminum scaena polluantur. Quid superesse, nisi ut corpora quoque nudent et caestus adsumant easque pugnas pro militia et armis meditentur? An iustitiam auctum iri et decurias equitum egregious iudicandi munus expleturos, si fractos sonos et dulcedinem vocum perite audissent? Noctis quoque dedecori adiectas, ne quod tempus pudori relinquatur, sed coetu promisco, quod perditissimus quisque per diem concupiverit, per tenebras audeat. In the consulate of Nero—his fourth term—and of Cornelius Cossus, a quinquennial competition on the stage, in the style of a Greek contest, was introduced at Rome. Like almost all innovations it was variously canvassed. Some insisted that even Pompeius had been censured by his elders for establishing the theater in a permanent home. Before, the games had usually been exhibited with the help of improvised tiers of benches and a stage thrown up for the occasion; or, to go further into the past, the people stood to watch: seats in the theater, it was feared, might tempt them to pass whole days in indolence. By all means let the spectacles be retained in their old form, whenever the praetor presided, and so long as no citizen lay under any obligation to compete. But the national morality, which had gradually fallen into oblivion, was being overthrown from the foundations by this imported licentiousness; the aim of which was that every production of every land, capable of either undergoing or engendering corruption, should be on view in the capital, and that our youth, under the influence of foreign tastes, should degenerate into votaries of gymnasia, of indolence, and of dishonorable amours,—and this at the instigation of the emperor and senate, who, not content with conferring immunity upon vice, were applying compulsion, in order that Roman nobles should pollute themselves on the stage under pretext of delivering an oration or a poem. What remained but to strip to the skin as well, put on the gloves, and practice that mode of conflict instead of the profession of arms? What justice could be promoted, would the equestrian decuries better fulfill their great judicial functions, if they had lent an expert ear to emasculated music and dulcet voices? Even night had been requisitioned for scandal, so that virtue should not be left with a breathing-space, but that amid a promiscuous crowd every vilest profligate might venture in the dark the act for which he had lusted in the light.  (J. Jackson, trans.)