Edward Gibbon Quote

The love of spectacles was the taste, or rather passion, of the Syrians: the most skilful artists were procured form the adjacent cities; a considerable share of the revenue was devoted to the public amusements; and the magnificence of the games of the theatre and circus was considered as the happiness, and as the glory, of Antioch.

The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, 3: Complete in Eight Volumes (ed. 1825)