"halting iambics," like those of Hipponax, may be supposed to have
flourished about this period, although it has been contended that he was
a Roman and lived in the Augustan age. However this may be, fabular
illustrations began to drop out of fashion soon after this time, and by
degrees were so far disallowed, that the man, who would have related
such stories, would have been regarded as ludicrous rather than
humorous. Although Phædrus Romanized Æsop's Fables, and gave them a
poetical meaning, he never gained any fame or popularity by them.
Martial calls him "improbus," _i.e._, a rascal.

In these and earlier days, besides the humour exhibited in comedies, a
considerable amount was displayed at public festivals and private
entertainments. In the Homeric hymn to Mercury, we read that the god
extemporized a song, "just as when young men at banquets slily twit each
other." When the cups flowed, and the conversation sparkled, men
indulged in repartee, or capped each other in verses. One man, for
instance, would quote or compose a line beginning and ending with a
certain letter, and another person was called upon for a similar one to
complete the couplet. Sometimes the line commenced with the first
syllable of a word, and ended with the last, and a corresponding conceit
was to be formed to answer it. The successful competitors at these games
were to be kissed and crowned with flowers; the unsuccessful to drink a
bowl of brine. These verbal devices were too simple and far-fetched to
be humorous, but were, to a certain extent, amusing, and no doubt the
forfeits and rewards occasioned some merriment.

A coarser kind of humour originated in the market-place, where professed
wags of a low class were wont to congregate, and amuse themselves by
chaffing and insulting passers-by. Such men are mentioned centuries
afterwards by St. Paul as "lewd fellows of the baser sort,"--an