The Athenians having one day debated the introduction of these barbarous sports in imitation of Corinth,[17.47] a philosopher arose and moved that they should first raze to the ground the altar of Pity.[17.48] Thus it happened that one of the most profound sentiments of the primitive Christians, and one, too, which produced the most extended results, was detestation of the theatre, the stadium, the gymnasium; that is to say, of all the public resorts which gave its distinctive character to a Grecian or Roman city. Ancient civilization was a public civilization. Its affairs were transacted in the open air in presence of the assembled citizens. It was the inversion of our system, in which life is private, and is inclosed within the walls of our dwellings. The theatre was the offspring of the _agora_ and the _forum_. The anathema against the theatre rebounded against society in general. A bitter rivalry grew up between the Church and the public games. The slave, driven away from the latter, betook himself to the former. I have never seated myself in those melancholy arenas, which are always the best-preserved relics of an ancient city, without seeing in imagination the struggle of the two systems. Here, the honest and humble citizen, already half a Christian, sitting in the first row, covering his face and going away ashamed; there, the philosopher, rising suddenly and openly reproaching the assemblage with its baseness.[17.49] These examples were rare in the first century, but the protest was beginning to make itself heard,[17.50] and the theatre was receiving more and more reprobation.[17.51] The laws and administrative regulations of the empire were as yet a veritable chaos. Central despotism, municipal and provincial franchises, administrative caprice and the self-will of commonalties, jostled each other in the strangest manner. But religious liberty was a gainer by these conflicts. The complete unity of administration, which was established at about the time of Trajan, proved much more fatal to the rising faith than the irregular, careless, and poorly-policed system of the Cæsars.