[21] Tacitus, Annales, xiii. 25; xiv. 21; Dion Cassius, lix. 2; lxi. 8; lxviii. 10; Suetonius, Nero, 16, 26; Titus, 7; Domitian, 7; Pliny, Paneg. 46; Hist. Augusta, Vita Hadriani, 19; Vita Alex. Severi, 34.
[22] The pyrricha, a Greek concerted dance, probably of folk origin (cf. ch. ix), was often given a mythological argumentum. It was danced in the amphitheatre.
[23] Valerius Maximus, ii. 6. 7 ‘eadem civitas severitatis custos acerrima est: nullum aditum in scenam mimis dando, quorum argumenta maiore in parte stuprorum continent actus; ne talia spectandi consuetudo etiam imitandi licentiam sumat.’
[24] A. H. J. Greenidge, Infamia (passim); Bouché-Leclercq, Manuel des Institutions romaines, 352, 449; Edictum praetoris in C. I. C. Digest, iii. 2. 1 ‘infamia notatur qui ... artis ludicrae pronuntiandive causa in scaenam prodierit.’ The jurists limited the application of the rule to professional actors. Thymelici, or orchestral musicians, were exempt. Diocletian made a further exemption for persons appearing in their minority (C. I. C. Cod. Iust. ii. 11. 21). The censors, on the other hand, spared the Atellani, whose performances had a traditional connexion with religious rites.
[25] C. I. L. i. 122.
[26] C. I. C. Digest, xlviii. 5. 25. A husband may kill an actor with whom his wife is guilty.
[27] Ibid. xxiii. 2. 42, 44; xxxviii. 1. 37; Ulpian, Fragm. xiii.
[28] Tacitus, Annales, i. 77. An attempt to restore the old usage under Tiberius was unsuccessful.
[29] Caesar was tolerably magnanimous, for Laberius had already taken his revenge in a scurrilous prologue. It had its touch of pathos, too:
‘eques Romanus lare egressus meo