The introduction of the Greek drama increased the demands on the dramatic staff, and there seems to have been no redundance in the supply of capable actors:  on one occasion for want of actors a piece of Naevius had to be performed by amateurs.  But this produced no change in the position of the artist; the poet or, as he was at this time called, the “writer,” the actor, and the composer not only belonged still, as formerly, to the class of workers for hire in itself little esteemed,(14) but were still, as formerly, placed in the most marked way under the ban of public opinion, and subjected to police maltreatment.(15) Of course all reputable persons kept aloof from such an occupation.  The manager of the company (-dominus gregis-, -factionis-, also -choragus-), who was ordinarily also the chief actor, was generally a freedman, and its members were ordinarily his slaves; the composers, whose names have reached us, were all of them non-free.  The remuneration was not merely small—­a -honorarium-of 8000 sesterces (80 pounds) given to a dramatist is described shortly after the close of this period as unusually high—­but was, moreover, only paid by the magistrates providing the festival, if the piece was not a failure.  With the payment the matter ended; poetical competitions and honorary prizes, such as took place in Attica, were not yet heard of in Rome—­the Romans at this time appear to have simply applauded or hissed as we now do, and to have brought forward only a single piece for exhibition each day.(16) Under such circumstances, where art worked for daily wages and the artist instead of receiving due honour was subjected to disgrace, the new national theatre of the Romans could not present any development either original or even at all artistic; and, while the noble rivalry of the noblest Athenians had called into life the Attic drama, the Roman drama taken as a whole could be nothing but a spoiled copy of its predecessor, in which the only wonder is that it has been able to display so much grace and wit in the details.

That only one piece was produced each day we infer from the fact, that the spectators come from home at the beginning of the piece (Poen. 10), and return home after its close (Epid.  Pseud.  Rud.  Stich.  Truc. ap. fin.).  They went, as these passages show, to the theatre after the second breakfast, and were at home again for the midday meal; the performance thus lasted, according to our reckoning, from about noon till half-past two o’clock, and a piece of Plautus, with music in the intervals between the acts, might probably occupy nearly that length of time (comp.  Horat.  Ep. ii. i, 189).  The passage, in which Tacitus (Ann. xiv. 20) makes the spectators spend “whole days” in the theatre, refers to the state of matters at a later period.

Comedy