e Jupiter darted
lightning, supposed to be the Greek fire, as in Ajax Oielus. The machine
for thunder (_bronton_) was a brazen vase, concealed under the stage, in
which they rolled stones. Festus calls it the Claudian thunder, from
Claudius Pulcher, the inventor. The most dreadful machines were,
however, the _pegmata_ (a general term also for all the machines), which
first consisted of scaffolds in stories, &c. These first exhibited
criminals fighting at the top, and then, dropping to pieces,
precipitated them to the lower story, to be torn to pieces by wild
beasts. Sometimes they were for vomiting flames, &c. The _theologium_
was a place more elevated than the stage, where the gods stood and
spoke, and the machines which held them rested.

The seats of the spectators were divided into stories, each containing
seven rows of seats, with two passages (_praecinctiones_) around them
above and below. Small staircases divided the seats into sections,
called _cunei_, and ended in a gate at the top, which communicated with
passages (the _vomitoriae_) for admission.

CHAPTER VI.

Roman Theatres--Description--"Deadheads"--Pantomime in Italy--Livius
Andronicus--_Fabulae Atellanae_--Extemporal Comedy--Origin of the
Masque, Opera, and Vaudeville--Origin of the term
Histrionic--Etruscans--Popularity of Pantomime in Italy--Pantomimists
banished by Trajan--Nero as a Mime--Pylades and Bathyllus--Subjects
chosen for the Roman Pantomimes--The Ballet--The _Mimi_ and
_Pantomimi_--_Archimimus_--Vespasian--Harlequin--"Mr. Punch"--Zany, how
the word originated--Ancient Masks--Lucian, Cassiodorus, and Demetrius
in praise of Pantomime--A celebrated _Mima_--Pantomimes denounced by
early writers--The purity of the English stage contrasted with that of
the Grecian and Roman--Female parts on the Grecian and Roman stages--The
principal Roman _Mimas_--The origin of the Clown of the early English
Drama.

The Roman theatres (continues Fosbroke) were of a similar D form. Two
lofty arched doorways entered into the pit. In front of the stage, which
was very shallow, was a pew-like orchestra. The proscenium was very
narrow, and instead of a drop scene was the _elisium_, a house, narrow,
with a kind of bow window front in the centre, and a door on each side:
for Pollux says that a house with two stories formed part of the stage,
whence old women and panders used to look down and peep about them.
Within the house were apartments. Around the back