Ab urbe condita

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.

However, the first introduction of plays, though intended as a means of religious expiation, did not relieve the mind from religious terrors nor the body from the inroads of disease.

Owing to an inundation of the Tiber, the Circus was flooded in the middle of the Games, and this produced an unspeakable dread; it seemed as though the gods had turned their faces from men and despised all that was done to propitiate their wrath.

[*]( Continued Pestilence —Fresh Attempts at Proitiation. ) C. Genucius and L. Aemilius Mamercus were the new consuls, each for the second time. The fruitless search for effective means of propitiation was affecting the minds of the people more than disease was affecting