The admiration which he expressed for Terence, whom he regarded as the foremost of all the Roman comic poets, is in keeping with this criticism. From the testimony of Quintilian[284] we may infer that the change of scene from Athens to Rome and the provincial towns of Italy did not improve the morality of the Roman stage. A further decline both in intellectual interest and in moral tendency appeared in the resuscitation in a literary form of the Fabulae Atellanae, the chief writers of which were L. Pomponius and Novius. A still further degradation was witnessed in the later days of the Republic and under the Empire in the rise of the 'Mimus,' as a recognised branch of dramatic literature. If the influence of the comic stage, when its chief representatives were Plautus and Terence, is to be regarded as only of a mixed character, it is difficult to associate any idea of intellectual pleasure with the gross buffooneries of the Atellan farce, when it had passed from the spontaneous hilarity of primitive times into the conditions of an artistic performance, and still less with the 'mimi,' which were intended to gratify the lowest propensities of the spectators. The rapid degeneracy of the mass of the people from the characteristic virtues of the older Republic is testified as much by the popularity of such spectacles as by the passionate delight excited by the gladiatorial combats. [Footnote 264: 'In argumento Caecilius poscit palmam,' quoted from Varro.] [Footnote 265: Ep. ad Attic. vii. 3; Brutus, 74.] [Footnote 266: Cf. Mommsen, vol. ii. p. 435, English translation.] [Footnote 267: 'Consulari utroque ac poeta.' Life of Terence, by Suetonius.] [Footnote 268: Cf. Prologue to the Hecyra.] [Footnote 269: Another reading makes the date ten years earlier.] [Footnote 270: Eunuchus, 1-3: 'Si quisquamst, qui placere se studeat bonis Quam plurimis et minime multos laedere, In his poeta hic nomen profitetur suom.' Hecyra, 46: 'Nolite sinere per vos artem musicam Recidere ad paucos.' ] [Footnote 271: 'For as to the charge of these ill-natured people, that men of rank aid him, and constantly write along with him, what they regard as a great reproach he considers the greatest compliment, while he enjoys the favour of those who enjoy the favour of all of you and of the people, whose services in war, in your leisure, in your business, each one of you has availed himself of at his own time without pride.'] [Footnote 272: Eunuchus, Prologue.] [Footnote 273: Prologue to Phormio, l. 5 etc.] [Footnote 274: Eunuchus, 7.] [Footnote 275: We have one or two Latin puns. Such as the play of words in _amentium_ and _amantium_, _verba_ and _verbera_; one or two cases of alliteration and asyndeton, e.g.-- 'Hic est vietus, vetus, veternosus senex,'-- and 'Profundat, perdat, pereat, etc.;' but such mannerisms, which abound in Plautus, are extremely rare in the younger poet.] [Footnote 276: In the Heauton Timorumenos.]