During the time of the Republic, and especially subsequently under the reign of the Emperors, the Romans adopted many new instruments from Greece, Egypt, and even from western Asia; without essentially improving any of their importations.
Their most favourite stringed instrument was the lyre, of which they had various kinds, called, according to their form and arrangement of strings, lyra, cithara, chelys, testudo, and fidis (or fides). The name cornu was given to the lyre when the sides of the frame terminated at the top in the shape of two horns. The barbitos was a kind of lyre with a large body, which gave the instrument somewhat the shape of the Welsh crwth. The psalterium was a kind of lyre of an oblong
square shape. Like most of the Roman lyres, it was played with a rather large plectrum. The trigonum was the same as the Greek trigonon. It is recorded that a certain musician of the name of Alexander Alexandrinus was so admirable a performer upon it that when exhibiting his skill in Rome he created the greatest furore. Less common, and derived from Asia, were the sambuca and nablia, the exact construction of which is unknown.
The flute, tibia, was originally made of the shin bone, and had a mouth-hole and four finger-holes. Its shape was retained even when, at a later period, it was constructed of other substances than bone. The tibia gingrina consisted of a long and thin tube of reed with a mouth-hole at the side of one end. The tibia obliqua and tibia vasca were provided with mouth-pieces affixed at a right angle to the tube; a contrivance somewhat similar to that on our bassoon. The tibia longa was especially used in religious worship. The tibia curva was curved at its broadest end. The tibia ligula appears to have resembled our flageolet. The calamus was nothing more than a simple pipe cut off the kind of reed which the ancients used as a pen for writing.
The Romans had double flutes as well as single flutes. The double flute consisted of two tubes united, either so as to have a mouth-piece in common or to have each a separate mouth-piece. If the tubes were exactly alike the double flute was called tibiæ pares; if they were different from each other, tibiæ impares. Little plugs, or stoppers, were inserted into the finger-holes to regulate the order of intervals. The tibia was made in various shapes. The tibia dextra was usually constructed of the upper and thinner part of a reed; and the tibia sinistra, of the lower and broader part. The performers used also the capistrum,—a bandage round the cheeks identical with the phorbeia of the Greeks.
Fig. 9.—Wall Painting of a youth wearing a myrtle wreath and playing on the Double Pipes. Restored in places. Said to have been found in a columbarium in the Vigna Ammendola on the Appian Way near Rome, about 1823.
British Museum.
The British Museum contains a wall painting ([Fig. 9]) representing a Roman youth playing the double pipes, which is stated to have been disinterred in the year 1823 on the Via Appia. Here the holmos or mouth-piece, somewhat resembling the reed of our oboe, is distinctly shown. The finger-holes, probably four, are not indicated, although they undoubtedly existed on the instrument.
Furthermore, the Romans had two kinds of Pandean pipes viz., the syrinx and the fistula. The bagpipe, tibia utricularis, is said to have been a favourite instrument of the Emperor Nero.