occasion of the funeral of D. Junius Brutus, and were given afterward
on such occasions, because it was believed that the manes, the spirits
of the departed, loved blood. Persons began to leave money for this
purpose in their wills, and by degrees a fondness for the frightful
sport increased, for the Romans had no leaning towards the ideal, and
delighted only in those pursuits which appealed to their coarse,
strong, and, in its way, pious nature. Humor and comedy with them
became burlesque, sometimes repulsive in its grotesqueness. Dramatic
art grew up during this period. We have seen that dramatic exhibitions
were introduced in the year 363, from Etruria, at a time of pestilence,
but they were mere pantomimes. Now plays began to be written.
Trustworthy history begins at the time of the Punic wars, and the
annals of Fabius Pictor commence with the year 216, after the battle of
Cannæ.

Rome itself was changed by the increased wealth of these times. The
streets were made wider; temples were multiplied; and aqueducts were
built to bring water from distant sources; the same Appius who
constructed the great road which now bears his name, having built the
first, which, however, disappeared long ago. Another, forty-three miles
in length, was paid for out of the spoils of the war with Pyrrhus, and
portions of it still remain. With the increase of wealth and luxury
came also improvement in language and in its use, and in the year 254,
studies in law were formally begun in a school established for the
purpose.

[Figure: ACTORS MASKS.]

The Romans had conquered Italy and Carthage, and the next step was to
make them masters of the East. Philip V., King of Macedon, was, as we