Ab urbe condita

fashion. Afterwards the young men began to imitate them, exercising their wit on each other in burlesque verses, and suiting their action to their

words. This became an established diversion, and was kept up by frequent practice. The Tuscan word for an actor is istrio, and so the native performers were called

histriones. These did not, as in former times, throw out rough extempore effusions like the Fescennine verse, but they chanted satyrical verses quite metrically arranged and adapted to the notes of the flute, and these they accompanied with appropriate movements. Several years later Livius for the first time abandoned the loose satyrical verses and ventured to compose a play with a coherent

plot. Like all his contemporaries, he acted in his own plays, and it is said that when he had worn

out his voice by repeated recalls he begged leave to place a second player in front of the flutist to sing the monologue while he did the acting, with all the more energy because his voice no longer embarrassed

him. Then the practice commenced of the chanter following the movements of the actors, the dialogue alone being left to their

voices. When, by adopting this method in the presentation of pieces, the old farce and loose jesting was given up and the play became a work of art, the young people left the regular acting to the professional players and began to improvise comic verses. These were subsequently known as exodia (after-pieces), and were mostly worked up into the “Atellane

Plays.” [*](These were “the old national drama immediately connected with the festive worship of the people in which it took its rise and which therefore retained a respectability which could be conceded to the performances of foreign histriones. Being free from all contact with the professional actor, the youn Roman could appear in the Atellan play without any forfeiture of his social position.” —Donaldson, Varronianus, p. 158. )These farces were of Oscan origin, and were kept by the young men in their own hands; they would not allow them to be polluted by the regular actors. Hence it is a standing rule that those who take part in the Atellanae are not deprived of their civic standing, and serve in the army as being in no way connected with the

regular acting. Amongst the things which have arisen from small beginnings, the origin of the stage ought to be put foremost, seeing that what was at first healthy and innocent has grown into a mad extravagance that even wealthy kingdoms can hardly support.