Pliny on Sports

I recently finished reading the letters of Pliny (from a Loeb edition I found while visiting the local bookshop of the Virginia Smiths) and then read a biography of him called "In the Shadow of Vesuvius." I think there's a lot to like about Pliny (the Younger) despite his open crustiness, and I appreciate the nuance of the social relationships you get in the letters. His view on sports, however, is worth reproducing in its entirety.

C. Plinius Calvisio suo s. 1 Omne hoc tempus inter pugillares ac libellos jucundissima quiete transmisi. ‘Quemadmodum’ inquis ‘in urbe potuisti?’ Circenses erant, quo genere spectaculi ne levissime quidem teneor. Nihil novum nihil varium, nihil quod non semel spectasse sufficiat. 2 Quo magis miror tot milia virorum tam pueriliter identidem cupere currentes equos, insistentes curribus homines videre. Si tamen aut velocitate equorum aut hominum arte traherentur, esset ratio non nulla; nunc favent panno, pannum amant, et si in ipso cursu medioque certamine hic color illuc ille huc transferatur, studium favorque transibit, et repente agitatores illos equos illos, quos procul noscitant, quorum clamitant nomina relinquent. 3 Tanta gratia tanta auctoritas in una vilissima tunica, mitto apud vulgus, quod vilius tunica, sed apud quosdam graves homines; quos ego cum recordor, in re inani frigida assidua, tam insatiabiliter desidere, capio aliquam voluptatem, quod hac voluptate non capior. 4 Ac per hos dies libentissime otium meum in litteris colloco, quos alii otiosissimis occupationibus perdunt. Vale.

Gaius Plinius to his Calvisius: 

I have been passing all my time here among my little tablets and books in a most pleasant peace. "How is that possible," you ask, "in the city?" Well, the Circensian games have been happening, and that is a kind of spectacle which has not the slightest attraction for me. There is no novelty, no variety in it, nothing which one wants to see twice. Hence I am the more amazed that so many thousands of people should be eager, like a pack of children, to see horses running time after time, and the charioteers bending over their cars. There might be some reason for their enthusiasm if it was the speed of the horses or the skill of the drivers that was the attraction, but it is the jersey colors which they favor, and the team uniforms that fire their love. If, in the middle of the course and during the race itself, the jerseys were to be changed, their enthusiasm and partisanship would change with them, and they would suddenly desert the drivers and the horses, whom they recognize from afar and whose names they shout aloud. Such is the influence and authority vested in one cheap shirt, I don't say with the common crowd, - for that is even cheaper than the tunic, - but with certain men of position; and when I consider that they can sit for so long without growing tired, looking on at such a fruitless, cheerless, and tedious sport, I really feel a sort of pleasure in the thought that what they take delight in has no charm for me. Thus it is that I have been only too glad to pass my leisure time among my books during the race-meeting, while others have been wasting their days in the most idle occupations.   Farewell.

You're right, Pliny. Stefon Diggs is wearing a Texans uniform now and we DO hate him for it. And even if this season goes exactly the way that every other season has gone we are still going to shout ourselves silly over the "tedium" of enjoying something really fun together. And YOU aren't invited.

Go Bills.