Book 7
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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
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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
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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.
