doric and his successor, in the earlier half of the
6th century. In the capital and provinces of the Eastern empire the
decline and fall of the stage cannot be similarly traced; but its end is
authoritatively assigned to the period of Saracen invasions which began
with the Omayyad dynasty in the 7th century.

It cannot be pretended that the doom which thus slowly and gradually
overtook the Roman theatre was undeserved. The remnants of the literary
drama had long been overshadowed by entertainments such as both earlier
and later Roman emperors--Domitian and Trajan as well as Galerius and
Constantine--had found themselves constrained to prohibit in the
interests of public morality and order, by the bloody spectacles of the
amphitheatre and by the maddening excitement of the circus. The art of
acting had sunk into pandering to the lewd or frivolous itch of eye and
ear; its professors had, in the words of a most judicious modern
historian, become "a danger to the peace of householders, as well as to
the peace of the streets"; and the theatre had contributed its utmost to
the demoralization of a world. The attitude taken up by the Christian
Church towards the stage was in general as unavoidable as its particular
expressions were at times heated by fanaticism or distorted by
ignorance. Had she not visited with her condemnation a wilderness of
decay, she could not herself have become--what she little dreamt of
becoming--the nursing mother of the new birth of an art which seemed
incapable of regeneration.

Survival of the mimes.

Though already in the 4th century _scenici_ had been excluded from the
benefit of Christian sacraments, and excommunication had been extended
to those who visited theatres instead of churches on Sundays and
holidays, while the clergy were absolutely prohibited from entering a
theatre, and though similar enactments had followed at later dates--yet
the entertainments of the condemned profession had never been entirely
suppressed, and had even occasionally received imperial patronage. The
legislation on the subject in the _Codex Theodosianus_ (accepted by both
empires in the earlier part of the 5th century) shows a measure of
tolerance indicating a conviction that the theatrical profession could
not be suppressed. Gradually, however, as they lost all footing in the
centres of civic life, the _mimes_ and their fellows became a wandering
fraternity, who doubtless appeared at festivals when their servi