Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus, De Spectaculis  10.1-9   (ca. A.D. 200): 1. Transeamus ad scaenicas res, quarum et originem communem et titulos pares secundum ipsam ab initio ludorum appellationem et administrationem coniunctam cum re equestri iam ostendimus. 2. Apparatus etiam ex ea parte consortes, qua ad scaenam a templis et aris et illa infelicitate turis et sanguinis inter tibias et tubas itur duobus inquinatissimis arbitris funerum et sacrorum, dissignatore et haruspice. 3. Itam cum de originibus ludorum ad circenses trnasiimus, inde nunc ad scaenicos ludos dirigemus a loci vitio. Theatrum proprie sacrarium Veneris est. Hoc denique modo id genus operis in saeculo evasit. 4. Nam saepe censores nascentia cum maxime theatra destruebant moribus consulentes, quorum scilicet periculum ingens de lasicivia providebant, ut iam hic ethinicis in testimonium cedat sententia ipsorum nobiscum faciens et nobis in exaggerationem disciplinae etiam humana praerogativa. 5. Itaque Pompeius Magnus solo theatro suo minor cum illam arcem omnium turpitudinum extruxisset, veritus quandoque memoriae suae censoriam animadversionem Veneris aedem superposuit et ad dedicationem edicto populum convocans, non theatrum sed Veneris templum nuncupavit, cui subiecimus, inquit, gradus spectuculorum. 6. Ita damnatum et damnandum opus templi titulo praetexit et disciplinam superstitione delusit. Sed Veneri et Libero convenit. Duo ista daemonia conspirata et coniurata inter se sunt ebrietatis et libidinis. 7. Itaque theatrum Veneris Liberi quoque domus est. Nam et alios ludos scaenicom Liberalia proprie vocabant, praeterquam Libero devotos, quae sunt Dionysia penes Graecos, etiam a Libero institutos. 8. Et est plane in artibus quoque scaenicis Liberi et Veneris patrocinium. Quae privata et properia sunt scaenae, de gestu et corporis flexu mollitiae Veneris et Liberi immolant, illi per sexum, ille per luxum dissolutis. 9. Quae vero voce et modis et organis et litteris transiguntur, Apollines et Musas et Minervas et Mercurios mancipes habent. 1. Let us pass on to the stage plays. Their origin we have shown to be the same, the divine titles they bear identical, since they were called "games" from the very beginning, and were exhibited in conjunction with equestrian displays. 2. Their equipment on that side is parallel. The path to the theater is from the temples and the altars, from that miserable mess of incense and blood, to the tune of flutes and trumpets; and the masters of the ceremonies are those two all-polluted adjuncts of funeral and sacrifice, the undertaker and the soothsayer. 3. So, as we turned from the origins of the games to the shows of the circus, now we will turn to the plays of the stage, beginning with the evil character of the place. The theater is properly speaking, the shrine of Venus; and that was how this kind of structure came to exist in the world. 4. For often the censors would destroy the theaters at their very birth; they did it in the interest of morals, for they foresaw that great danger to morals must arise from the theater's licentiousness. So here the Gentiles have their own opinion coinciding with ours as evidence, and we have the preliminary judgement of human morality to reinforce Christian law. 5. So whenPompey the Great, a man who was surpassed only by his theater in greatness, had erected that citadel of all vile practices, he was afraid that some day the censors would condemn his memory. He therefore built on top of it a shrine of Venus, and when he summoned the people by edict to its dedication, he termed it not a theater but a temple of Venus, ‘under which,' he said, ‘we have put tiers of seats for viewing the shows.' 6. In this way he misrepresented the character of a building, condemned and worthy of condemnation, with a temple's name, and employed superstition to make sport of morality. Venus and Liber (Bacchus), however, are close companions. The two demons of lust and drunkenness have banded together in a sworn confederacy. 7. Therefore the temple of Venus is also the House of Liber. For there were other stage plays to which they suitable gave the name Liberalia (Dionysia among the Greeks), not only dedicated to Liber, but instituted by Liber. 8. And quite obviously Liber and Venus are the patrons of the arts and of the stage. Those features of the stage peculiarly and especially its own, that effeminacy of gesture and posture, they dedicate to Venus and Liber, wanton gods, the one in her sex, the other in his dress; 9. while all that is done with voice and song, instrument and book, is the affair of the Apollos and the Muses, the Minervas and Mercuries. (G. H. Rendall, trans.)