About an hundred and twenty years before regular plays were first exhibited at Rome, a sort of entertainment called _ludi scenici_ was introduced there by the Etrurians: it consisted merely of dancing to the sound of a pipe. This simple amusement was soon improved upon, and the dancers began also to speak. They spouted a species of rude satirical verses, in which they threw out rough jests, raillery, and repartee against each other: these were called Saturnian verses, or Satires, from their god Saturn: hence this name was afterwards applied to poetry composed for the purpose of lashing vice or folly. The Saturnian verses, set to music, and accompanied by dancing, continued a favourite diversion, till they were superseded by regular plays about the year of Rome 515. The places where they were represented, (called theatra, theatres, from a Greek word signifying _to see_,) were originally tents, erected in the country, under the shade of some lofty trees: afterwards they performed in temporary buildings formed of wood: one of these is recorded to have been large enough to contain eighty thousand spectators. Pompey the Great erected the first permanent theatre: it was built of stone, and of a size sufficient to accommodate forty thousand persons. Some critics have objected against Terence, that he is guilty of an impropriety in making one actor speak very frequently without being heard by another; and introducing two or more persons on the stage, who, though they are both of them seen by the spectators, yet do not perceive each other for a considerable space of time. These objections are easily answered when we reflect on the magnificent size of the Roman theatres. An ingenious writer of the last century has given a very clear explanation of this subject: I shall give it in his own words. “Some make this objection, that in the beginning of many scenes, two actors enter upon the stage, and talk to themselves a considerable time before they see or know one another; which they say is neither probable nor natural. Those that object to this don’t consider the great difference between our little scanty stage and the large magnificent Roman theatres. Their stage was sixty yards wide in the front, their scenes so many streets meeting together, with all by-lanes, rows, and alleys; so that two actors coming down two different streets or lanes, couldn’t be seen by each other, though the spectators might see both; and sometimes, if they did see each other, they couldn’t well distinguish faces at sixty yards’ distance. Besides, upon several accounts, it might well be supposed when an actor enters upon the stage out of some house, he might take a turn or two under the porticoes, cloisters, or the like, (that were usual at that time,) about his door, and take no notice of an actor’s being on the other side of the stage.”