found in the ruins of a villa near Rieti.[725] On comparing together these various representations, which range in date over a period of five or six hundred years, it is interesting to find that they all bear a strong family resemblance to one another. The pictures of the tragic actor, whether found on Greek vases, Etruscan mosaics, or wall-paintings of Cyrene and Pompeii, obviously belong to one common type. In spite of considerable differences in point of detail they portray the same general conception. This fact confirms the ancient tradition, that the costume of the tragic stage, in all its more important features, was definitely settled by Aeschylus in the course of the fifth century. The contrast between the ancient and the modern actor is marked by nothing so conspicuously as by the use of masks. These masks, or similar devices, were a regular feature in the old Dionysiac worship, and were probably inherited as such by the tragic stage, and not invented of set purpose. With the growth of tragedy they soon acquired a new character. Thespis, the earliest of tragic actors, is said at the commencement of his career to have merely painted his face with white lead or purslane. Later on he employed masks; but these were of a very simple character, consisting merely of linen, without paint or colouring. Choerilus introduced certain improvements which are not specified. Phrynichus set the example of using female masks.[726] Aeschylus was the first to employ painted masks, and to portray features of a dreadful and awe-inspiring character. Though not the inventor of the tragic mask, as some ancient writers assert, he was the first to give it that distinctive character from which in later times it never varied except in detail.[727] After the time of Aeschylus there is no further mention of any radical alterations or improvements in the manufacture of masks.