of Italian country towns, or depicted in broad comic style incidents in
the life of farmer and artisan. Maccus appeared as a young girl, as a
soldier, as an innkeeper; Pappus became engaged to be married; Bucco
turned gladiator; and in the rough and tumble of these old friends the
Roman mob found rich food for laughter.[86]

The mime was of a very similar character, but freer in point of form. It
renounced the use of masks and reached, it would seem, an even greater
pitch of indecency than the Atellan. The subjects of a few mimes are
known to us. Among the most popular were the _Phasma_ or _Ghost_[87] and
the _Laureolus_[888] of Catullus, a writer of the reign of Caligula. In
the latter play was represented the death by crucifixion of the famous
brigand 'Laureolus'; so degraded was popular taste that on one occasion
it is recorded that a criminal was made to take the part of Laureolus
and was crucified in grim earnest upon the stage.[89] In another mime of
the principate of Vespasian the chief attraction was a performing
dog,[90] which, on being given a pretended opiate, went to sleep and
later feigned a gradual revival in such a realistic manner as to rouse
the wildest applause on the part of the audience.

Both Atellan and mime abounded in topical allusions and spared not even
the emperors. Allusion was made to the unnatural vices attributed to
Tiberius,[91] to the deaths of Claudius and Agrippina,[92] to the
avarice of Galba,[93] to the divorce of Domitian,[94] and on more than
one occasion heavy punishment was meted out to authors and actors
alike.[95]

Legitimate comedy led a struggling existence. An inscription at
Aeclanum[96] records the memory of a certain Pomponius Bassulus, who not
only translated certain comedies of Menander but himself wrote original