Domitian's Spectacles

 From Robert Graves's translation of Suetonius's The Twelve Caesars. Domitian, the last of the twelve, was for some time an enthusiast of poetry, but later neglected it altogether and even forbade actors from appearing on the public stage at one point —perhaps in part because his wife Domitia had fallen in love with the actor Paris. (He also had a student of this actor executed because he looked like Paris). He prohibited stage lampoons of known citizens as well. But he did provide other spectacles in the Roman taste:

Domitian presented many extravagant entertainments in the Colosseum and the Circus. Besides the usual two-horse chariot races he staged a couple of battles, one for infantry, the other for cavalry; a sea-fight in the Colosseum; wild-beast hunts; gladiatorial shows by torchlight in which women as well as men took part. Nor did he ever forget the Quaestorian Games which he had revived; and allowed the people to demand a combat between two pairs of gladiators from his own troop, whom he would bring on last in their gorgeous Court livery. Throughout every gladiatorial show Domitian would chat, sometimes in very serious tones, with a little boy who had a grotesquely small head and always stood at his knee dressed in red. Once he was heard to ask the child, 'Can you guess why I have just appointed Mettius Rufus Prefect of Egypt?' A lake was dug at his orders close to the Tiber, surrounded with seats, and used for almost full-scale naval battles, which he watched even in heavy rain.

He also held Secular Games, fixing their date by Augustus's old reckoning, and ignoring Claudius's more recent celebration of them; and for the circus racing, which formed part of the festivities, reduced the number of laps from seven to five, so that 100 races a day could be run off.  In honour of Capitoline Jupiter he founded a festival of music, horsemanship, and gymnastics, to be held every five years, and awarded far more prizes than is customary nowadays. The festival included Latin and Greek public-speaking contests, competitions for choral singing to the lyre and for lyre-playing alone, besides the usual solo singing to lyre accompaniment; he even instituted foot races for girls in the Stadium.When presiding at these functions he wore buskins, a purple Greek robe, and a gold crown engraved with the images of Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva; and at his side sat the Priest of the Capitoline Jupiter and the Priest of the Deified Flavians, wearing the same costume as he did, except for crowns decorated with his image. Domitian also celebrated the annual five-day festival of Minerva at his Alban villa, and founded in her honour a college of priests, whose task it was to supply officers, chosen by lot, for producing lavish wild-beast hunts and stage plays, and sponsoring competitions in rhetoric and poetry.

(The Twelve Caesars, p. 308)