the Greeks. In the latter the orchestra or place for the dancing and
chorus was about 12 ft. below the stage, with steps to ascend when
these were required; in the former the chorus was not used in comedy,
and having no orchestra was in tragedies placed upon the stage. The
getting together of the chorus was a public service, or liturgia, and
in the early days of Grecian prosperity was provided by the choregus.

Tiberius by a decree abolished the Saturnalia, and exiled the dancing
teachers, but the many acts of the Senate to secure a better standard
were useless against the foreign inhabitants of the Empire accustomed
to sensuality and licence.

[Illustration: Fig. 27--Bacchante. From a fresco, Pompeii, 1st century
B.C.]

[Illustration: Fig. 28.--Dancer. From a fresco in the Baths of
Constantine, 4th century A.D.]

Perhaps the encouragement of the more brutal combats of the Coliseum
did something to suppress the more delicate arts, but historians have
told us, and it is common knowledge, what became of the great Empire,
and the lyric with other arts were destroyed by licentious
preferences.




CHAPTER IV.