Floral Games.

According to Lactantius, Flora was a courtezan, who, having got large sums of money by prostituting herself, made the Roman people her heirs, and ordered that the income of a certain fund, which she specified, should be employed in celebrating her birthday. She would have that day remarkable by the games that were to be exhibited to the people, and named after her, Floral. They were celebrated in a very scandalous manner, and were in some sort the courtezans’ feast. Lactantius adds, that the senate found a way to hide from the public the original of so infamous an institution; but, taking the advantage of the courtezan’s name, they made them believe that Flora was the goddess presiding over flowers; and that, in order to have a good harvest, it was necessary to honour that goddess every year, and render her propitious to them.

“These games, therefore,” adds Lactantius, “are

celebrated with all the lewdness imaginable, and in a manner that perfectly answers the memory of a prostitute. For, besides the extravagant license whereby obscene talking is encouraged, the courtezans, at the instance of the people, are stripped naked, and play their monkey gambols in their sight, till the eyes of the most abandoned spectators are tired with their abominable behaviour."

St Augustin thunders, as he ought to do, in divers places, against this impudence. I shall only relate the following passage:—“Of these flowers neither is the earth productive, nor any fertile virtue; but Flora, the goddess Flora, must be made the worthy parent of them, whose games are celebrated with such profligate license and obscenity, that any one may understand what daemon it is that cannot be otherwise appeased. There, no birds, no beasts, nor even human blood, but human modesty is butchered, and most impiously sacrificed."

Pagan authors do not deny that naked women appeared before the people at the Floral games, and relate that Cato, once assisting at them, on perceiving that his presence hindered the people from demanding the naked spectacles as usual, he retired that he might not interrupt the feast. At the sight of this condescension the people followed him with repeated acclamations, and afterwards acted according to custom.

Martial justly laughs at this behaviour of Cato. Why did he go to the games, since he knew what was practised there? Did he go there only to go out again? This is what the poet reproaches him with; but he forgot the most material part, which is, that Cato ought not to have withdrawn, since he observed that his presence was so necessary to correct an ill custom.

Nosses jocosæ dulce cum sacrum Floræ
Festosque lusus et licentiam vulgi,
Cur in theatrum Cato severe venisti?
An ideo tantum vénéras ut exires?
Mart. Epigr. III. lib. i.

Why cam'st thou, Cato, midst that gamesome crowd,
No stranger to the revels there allow’d?

Thou knew’st 'twas Flora's feast; why cam'st thou then?
Was it for this—say—to go out again?

Juvenal, in a few words, gives a frightful idea of the lewdness of the Floral games,

- - - - - dignissima prorsus
Florali matrona tuba.
Juven. Sat. vi. ver. 349.

For Flora's scenes a dame exactly form'd.

Though it is clear enough from the passages I have cited in the preceding remark, that this was the courtesan’s feast, yet I shall add the following verses out of Ovid:—

Turba quidem cur hos celebrent meretricia ludos,
Non ex difficili caussa petenda subest.
Non est de tetricis, non est de magna professis,
Vult sua plebeio sacra patere chore.
Et monet ætatis specie, dum floreat, uti,
Contemni spinam cum cecidere rosæ.
Ovid. Fastor. lib. v. v. 349.

But why should Flora chuse that motley train
Her sacred scenes to tread? the reason's plain.
No stiffness she, no rigid rules admires,
But calls her vot’ries to plebeian choirs.
Their charms she bids them use, ere they decay;
The rose once fall'n, the stalk is cast away.

Fine morality this! The goddess Flora would have courtezans celebrate her festival, because it is fit to let women know they are to make the most of their beauty while it is in the bloom; for if they suffer their prime to slip away, they will be despised like a rose which has nothing left but its thorns; but how abominable soever this morality is, it is publicly taught among Christians in assemblies that are honoured with the protection of the supreme power. Comedies and operas are full of such doctrine.

In the year of Rome 580, a decree was made for

celebrating these games annually. Ovid proves this; for he introduces the goddess Flora, who relates, that having suffered the blossoms of the trees and vines to perish, to be revenged on the Romans for not celebrating the Floral games every year, she had forced the senate to make a decree concerning that anniversary, if there were a good harvest. It proved good, and thus the decree began to be put into execution under the consulship of Posthumius and Lænas.

Convenere Patres, et si bene floreat annus,
Numinibus nostris annua festa vovent.
Annuimus voto. Consul cum consule ludos
Posthumio Lænas persoluëre mihi.
Ovid. Fast. lib. v. v. 327.

To me the fathers annual feasts decreed,
If the year flourish, and the crops succeed.
Their vows I heard; thanks for the friendly aid,
The consuls, Lænas and Posthumius, paid.
Art.Flora.