As, however, the State increased in power by conquest, it absorbed
with other countries other habits, and the art degenerated often, like
that of Greece and Etruria, into a vehicle for orgies, when they
brought to Rome with their Asiatic captives even more licentious
practices and dances.

[Illustration: Fig. 25.--Funeral dance from the same tomb.]

As Rome, which never rose to the intellectual and imaginative state of
Greece in her best period, represented wealth, commerce, and conquest,
in a greater degree, so were her arts, and with these the lyric. In
her best state her nobles danced, Appius Claudius excelled, and
Sallust tells us that Sempronia "psaltere saltare elegantius"; so that
in those days ladies played and danced, but no Roman citizen danced
except in the religious dances. They carried mimetic dances to a very
perfect character in the time of Augustus under the term of _Musica
muta_. After the second Punic war, as Greek habits made their way into
Italy, it became a fashion for the young to learn to dance. The
education in dancing and gesture were important in the actor, as masks
prevented any display of feature. The position of the actor was never
recognized professionally, and was considered _infamia_. But the
change came, which caused Cicero to say "no one danced when sober."
Eventually the performers of lower class occupied the dancing
platform, and Herculaneum and Pompeii have shown us the results.

[Illustration: Fig. 26.--Bacchante leading the Dionysian bull to the
altar. Bas-relief in the Vatican.]

In the theatre the method of the Roman chorus differed from that of