permanent public games cannot be described in detail on account of the lack of
evidence. However, we do know from the epigraphically attested festival calendars
from the closing years of the republic and the imperial period that the ludi Romani
were ultimately to extend from September 5 to 19, the ludi plebeiifrom November
4 to 17, the ludi Cerialesfrom April 12 to 19, the ludi Apollinaresfrom July 6 to
13, the ludi Megalensesfrom April 4 to 10, and the ludi Floralesfrom April 28 until
May 3.
The public games represented an important instrument in the nobility’s internal
and external policy, which is why the nobility encouraged their extension and elab-
oration. However, the Roman ruling elite also discovered new potential in the games
as a forum for self-representation. For, in contrast to other expressions of the state
religion, it was possible to shape the ludi publiciin form and in content in a special
way without impairing the sensitive relationship between ritual and cult. The nobiles,
who, on account of the way they saw themselves, were pressing for possibilities of
self-presentation, had here found a field of activity offering scope to translate their
capability and preparedness to perform into ritual, and to demonstrate the same to
the public.
Thus the introduction of new permanent games is to be explained by the inter-
est which the nobility took in them from their own motives. Finally, additional annual
games extended the reference framework of an elite dependent on proving their dig-
nity and gaining recognition when they concentrated their activities on religion, and
individual nobles entered into competition with one another in this connection.
Nevertheless, a considerable explosive force lay in the individual claim. An ambi-
valence of functions was basically present and so an extended understanding of the
ludi publiciwould establish itself. The attempts by the senate, that institutional cen-
ter of the aristocracy, to exert an influence in a sanctioning and regulatory manner
on the dynamic conditions in the system of games only managed to hold up a
particular, highly consequential development temporarily. As the guarantor of col-
lective discipline, the senate attempted, above all, to cut down the ludi votivi, staged
at growing expense by military commanders thirsting for glory, because they served
for their self-presentation. These votive games, which, since 205 bcat the latest,
were once again vowed and given on one’s own responsibility (Livy 28.38.14,
28.45.12), stand out particularly in the records and are an early symptom of the
process of disintegration in the Roman ruling elite.
The generals giving games stand at the beginning of a development which was
to lead to the conditions in the late republic when the magistrates responsible en-
deavored to outdo one another in the staging of the public games, in the apparatus
ludorum publicorum. After all, the curators could decisively promote their career by
this. The aedile could build on the electorate’s vivid recollection of particularly
magnificent games when standing for the post of praetor. Thus a compulsion to
take action prevailed. This, at times, could escalate into actionism, as is shown par-
ticularly clearly in the display of splendor in the temporary stage installations, the
venationes, beast hunts, conducted with great enthusiasm. Despite the immeasurable
pageantry and uninhibited instrumentalization of the games in the late republic, the
230 Frank Bernstein