The best of the Greek puppet plays seem to have been taken from the Iliad and the Odyssey of Homer. In a play of five scenes, one scene showed the seashore, with men hammering, sawing, and building ships, a second showed the men launching their boats, a third showed the coming of a storm on the sea, the fourth showed the ships being driven toward the rocks, the last scene showed the wreck of the ships and the drowning of Ajax. ROME Since the Romans seem to have copied so much from the Greeks, it is not surprising that they copied the Greek marionettes. In fact, the Romans and Greeks seem to have been equally fond of them. Roman writers mentioned them in their books, Roman Emperors filled their palaces with showmen and their puppets, and built small, richly furnished theaters for them. Roman marionettes were sometimes covered with gold and silver, precious stuffs, and shining armor. Their mechanism was amazing. Almost every sort of transformation could be carried out. At one time, Roman rulers became so interested in puppets that affairs of the government were almost forgotten. There were three kinds of Roman marionettes. The simplest kind was the Burattini, a kind of marionette that is much like a mitten. They were shown on the street corners by a showman who needed no more than two—one for each hand. It cost almost nothing to see them. The shopkeepers, gladiators, slaves, and surely the Roman children came to look whenever they heard the showman’s fife. He would make them act droll little dialogues or pretend to sing popular songs. There was another kind called Fantoccini. These were jointed dolls strung on cords that were drawn across the knees of the operator. He usually sang or played some musical instrument while he made certain movements with his legs that caused the puppets to advance or retire or to move all in one direction. A third kind of marionette was manipulated by strings or wires from above. In the tomb of the tragic Empress Marie, wife of the Emperor Honorius, who lived 365 B.C., were found the puppets of her little child. She probably cared more for these puppets than for all her jewels. The great Antiochus, when he became king of Syria, surrounded himself with mimes, burattini, and showmen, seemingly caring little for his huge empire. When Rome fell, the gods and temples were destroyed and puppets were almost forgotten. But we find the world could not live long without them. In a very short time, when the early Christians wished to help each other to picture the precious story of the Christ, they again began to make puppets. We must now try to picture them in the great underground cities that we call catacombs—probably living in what were the world’s first churches, and enacting for these persecuted peoples the scenes of the new religion. We know that these early Christians revered them, for they carved them on their tombs.