[6] Fundanius, the friend of Horace, appears to have made an attempt to produce an artistic revival of the old comedy in the Augustan age, as Pollio, Varius, Ovid and others did of the old tragic drama, but with no permanent success.
[7] E.g. the dance of Pseudolus. Pseud. 1246, etc.
[8] Cic. Brut. 15. 60; De Senec. 14. 50.
[9] Cf. Cicero's testimony to the purity of the style of Naevius and Plautus with his criticism on the style of Caecilius and Pacuvius. Terence was the only foreigner who attained perfect idiomatic purity of speech, but he must have been brought to Rome when quite a child.
[10] 'Puplicisne adfinis fuit an maritumis negotiis?'—Trinum. 331.
[11] See the paper by Professor H. F. West, reprinted from the American Journal of Philology, referred to supra page 54.
[12] Cf. the line at the end of the Prologue to the Cistellaria (Act. i. Sc. 3)—
'Ut vobis victi Poeni poenas sufferant.'
The 'Didascalia' to the Stichus is one of the few preserved. From it we learn that the play was acted P. Sulpicio, C. Aurelio, Cos., i.e. 200 b.c.
[13] This is shown in some cases by reference to seats in the theatre, which were not introduced till 155 b.c. In the Prologue to the Casina it is said that only the older men present could remember the first production of that play in the life-time of the poet. The Prologues to the Aulularia, Trinummus, and Rudens, are probably genuine, and also the speech of Auxilium in the Cistellaria.