4
Livy distinguishes five stages in the development
of scenic entertainments: (1) dances,
accompanied by the flute; (2) improvisation of rude
verses in addition to the music and dancing; (3)
medleys, of a musical character, accompanied by flute
and dance; (4) the comedy with a regular plot, special
singers for the lyric parts, etc.; (5) the addition of
an after-play, exodium or Atellana.
With this account, Horace, Epistles II. i. 139
ff. should be compared.
5
The name was derived by the ancients either from Fescennia,
a place in Etruria, or from fascinum, a
phallic symbol.
9
Actors were regularly reckoned in the aerarii
or lowest class of citizens, who were not
permitted to serve in the army.
lūdĭo , ōnis, m. ludus,
I. a stage-player, pantomimist: ludiones ex Etruria
acciti, Liv. 7, 2, 4: ludionum oblectamenta, id. 39,
6; App. Flor. 4, 18, p. 359, 8; cf. 1. ludius, I.
histrio , ōnis, m. Etrusc.
prim. form HISTER, Liv. 7, 2, 6; Val. Max. 2, 4, 4;
whence histricus and histriculus,
I. a stage-player, actor, either tragic or comic (syn.:
actor, mimus, tragoedus, comoedus).
I. Lit.: quod verbum in cavea dixit histrio, Plaut.
Truc. 5, 39; Liv. 7, 2; Val. Max. 2, 4, 4; Cic. Fin. 3,
7, 24; id. Par. 3, 2, 26; id. de Or. 1, 5, 18; 1, 61,
258; id. de Sen. 19, 70; Plaut. Am. prol. 69; 77 sq.;
id. Capt. prol. 13 et saep.: ex pessimo histrione bonum
comoedum fieri, Cic. Rosc. Com. 10, 30; cf.: vidi ego
saepe histriones atque comoedos, cum, etc., Quint. 6,
2, 35 Spald.: patina Aesopi tragoediarum histrionis,
Plin. 35, 12, 46, § 163: M. Ofilius Hilarus comoediarum
histrio, id. 7, 53, 54, § 185: tragicus, id. 10, 51,
72, § 141: quod non dant proceres dabit histrio, Juv.
7, 90.*
II. Transf., a boaster: histrionis est parvam rem
attollere, Cels. 5, 26,