cia, and the latter came from
Alexandria), and Hylas, the principal exponents of Pantomime during the
reign of Augustus, have also been credited with the honour of
originating Pantomime.

The early Roman entertainments only consisted of the military and sacred
dances, and the scenes in the circus. With the advent of the arts of
Greece the austerity hitherto practised by the Romans, which had arisen,
says Duray, "Much more from poverty than conviction," for "Two or three
generations had sufficed to change a city which had only known meagre
festivities and rustic delights into the home of revelry and pleasure."

With the Romans, in their Pantomimic entertainments, the whole gamut of
the emotions were gone through.

When the Greek drama was brought into Rome by Livius Andronicus, the
_Fabulae Atellanae_, or _Laudi Osci_--derived from the town of Atella,
in Campania, between Capua and Naples--was still employed to furnish the
Interludes, and just in a similar way as the _Satyra_ Extemporal
Interludes supplied the Grecian stage. None of these Atellan Farces
have been committed to us, but Cicero, in a letter to his friend
Papyrius Paetus, speaks of them as the "More delicate burlesque of the
old Atellan Farces." From them also, we derive the Extemporal Comedy, or
_Comedia del' Arte_ of Italy (afterwards to be noted), with its
characters, Harlequin, Clown, Pierrot, and the like, associated with
English and Italian Pantomime, and the progenitor also of all those
light forms of entertainment known as the Masque, the Opera, and the
Vaudeville. On English dramatic literature the Italian Extemporal
Comedies and their Pantomimical characters have also had a considerable
amount of influence.

Livy mentions that actors were sent for (_circa_ 364 B.C.) from Etruria,
who, without verses or any action expressive of verses, danced not
ungracefully, after the Tuscan manner to the flute. In process of time
the Roman youth began to imitate these dancers intermixing raillery with
unpolished verses, their gestures corresponding with the sense of the
words. Thus were these plays received at Rome, and being improved and
refined by frequent performance the Roman actors acquired the name of
_Histriones_, from the Etruscan _Hister_, meaning a dancer or a stage
player. (From this we obtain our words histrion and histrionic). But
their dialogue did not consist of unpremeditated and coarse jests in
such rude verses as were used by the _Fescennini_