t be left to
the reader's further study of the authors mentioned in the
bibliography at the end of the work.

[Illustration: Fig. 18.--Greek dancers and tumblers.]

It may astonish the reader to know that the funambulist or rope-dancer
was very expert with the Greeks, as also was the acrobat between
knives and swords. Animals were also taught to dance on ropes, even
elephants.

The important religious and other dances were not generally composed
of professionals. The greatest men were not above showing their
sentiments by dancing. Sophocles danced after Salamis, and Epaminondas
was an expert dancer. There were dancers of all grades, from the
distinguished to the moderate. Distinguished persons even married into
excellent positions, if they did not already occupy them by birth.
Philip of Macedon married Larissa, a dancer, and the dancer
Aristodemus was ambassador to his Court. These dancers must not be
confounded with those hired to dance at feasts, etc. (figs. 9, 14 and
18). [Illustration: Fig. 19.--Etruscan bronze dancer with eyes of
diamonds, found at Verona. Now in the British Museum.]

CHAPTER III.

ETRUSCAN-SOUTH ITALIAN, ROMAN DANCING, ETC.

One of the most important nations of antiquity was the Etruscan,
inhabiting, according to some authorities, a dominion from Lombardy to
the Alps, and from the Mediterranean to the Adriatic.

Etruria gave a dynasty to Rome in Servius Tullius, who originally was
Masterna, an Etruscan.

[Illustration: Fig. 20.--Etruscan dancer. From a painting in the
Grotta dei Vasi dipinti--Corneto.]

It is, however, with the dancing that we are dealing. There is little
doubt that they were dancers in every sense; there are many ancient
sepulchres in Etruria, with dancing painted on their walls. Other
description than that of the pictures we do not possess, for as yet
the language is a dead letter. There is no doubt, as Gerhardt
[Footnote: "Ann. Institut.": 1831, p. 321.] suggests, that they
considered dancing as one of the emblems of joy in a future state,
and that the dead were received with dancing and music in their new
home. They danced to the music of the pipes, the lyre, the castanets
of wood, steel, or brass, as is shown in the illustrations taken from
the monuments.

[Illustration: Fig. 21.--Etruscan dancing and performances. From
paintings in the Grotta della Scimia Corneto, about 500 B.C.]

That the Phoenicians and Greeks had at certain times immense influence