these were of Etruscan origin, such as the
Lupercalia, the Ambarvalia, &c. In the former the dancers were
demi-nude, and probably originally shepherds; the latter was a serious
dancing procession through fields and villages. [Illustration: Fig.
24.--Funeral dance. From Capua.]

A great dance of a severe kind was executed by the Salii, priests of
Mars, an ecclesiastical corporation of twelve chosen patricians. In
their procession and dance, on March 1, and succeeding days, carrying
the Ancilia, they sang songs and hymns, and afterwards retired to a
great banquet in the Temple of Mars. That the practice was originally
Etruscan may be gathered from the circumstance that on a gem showing
the armed priests carrying the shields there are Etruscan letters.
There were also an order of female Salii. Another military dance was
the _Saltatio bellicrepa_, said to have been instituted by Romulus in
commemoration of the Rape of the Sabines. The Pyrrhic dance (fig. 13)
was also introduced into Rome by Julius Caesar, and was danced by the
children of the leading men of Asia and Bithynia.

As, however, the State increased in power by conquest, it absorbed
with other countries other habits, and the art degenerated often, like
that of Greece and Etruria, into a vehicle for orgies, when they
brought to Rome with their Asiatic captives even more licentious
practices and dances.

[Illustration: Fig. 25.--Funeral dance from the same tomb.]

As Rome, which never rose to the intellectual and imaginative state of
Greece in her best period, represented wealth, commerce, and conquest,
in a greater degree, so were her arts, and with these the lyric. In
her best state her nobles danced, Appius Claudius excelled, and
Sallust tells us that Sempronia "psaltere saltare elegantius"; so that
in those days ladies played and danced, but no Roman citizen danced
except in the religious dances. They carried mimetic dances to a very
perfect character in the time of Augustus under the term of _Musica
muta_. After the second Punic war, as Greek habits made their way into
Italy, it became a fashion for the young to learn to dance. The
education in dancing and gesture were important in the actor, as masks
prevented any display of feature. The position of the actor was never
recognized professionally, and was considered _infamia_. But the
change came, which caused Cicero to say "no one danced when sober."
Eventually the performers of lower class occupied the da