emotional effect of which Lucian can scarcely find sufficiently high
terms of praise.[109] The themes appear to have been drawn from the more
lurid passages in mythology and history. If the libretto was not coarse
in itself, there is abundant evidence to show that the subjects chosen
were often highly lascivious, while the movements of the dancers--not
seldom men of the vilest character--were frequently to the last degree
obscene.[110] Inadequate as this substitute for the drama must seem to
us, we must remember that southern peoples were--and indeed are--far
more sensitive to the language of signs, to expressive gesticulation and
the sensuous movements of the body[111] than are the less quick-witted
and emotional peoples of the North; and further, even if for the most
part these _fabulae salticae_ had small literary value, distinguished
poets did not disdain to write librettos for popular actors. Passages
from the works of Vergil were adapted for such performances;[112] Lucan
wrote no less than fourteen _fabulae salticae,_[113] while the _Agave_
of Statius,[114] written for the dancer Paris, is famous from the
well-known passage in the seventh satire of Juvenal. Nothing survives of
these librettos to enlighten us as to their literary characteristics,
and the other details of the performance do not concern us here.[115] It
is sufficient to say that the _pantomimus_ had an enormous vogue in the
Silver Age, and won a rich harvest by his efforts, and that the factions
of the theatre, composed of the partisans of this or that actor, were
scarcely less notorious than the factions of the circus for the
disturbances to which they gave rise.[116]

Of the musical recitations of portions of existing tragedies or of
tragic episodes written for the occasion we possess even less knowledge.
The passages selected or composed for this purpose were in all
probability usually lyric, but we hear also of the chanting of iambics,
as, for instance, in the case of the _Oedipus in Exile,_ in which Nero