ĀTELLĀNAE FĂBŬLAE

were a species of farce or comedy, so called from Atella, a town of the Osci, in Camp an i a. From this circumstance, and from being written in the Oscan dialect, they were also called Ludi Osci . These Atellane plays were not praetextatae , i.e. comedies in which magistrates and persons of rank were introduced, nor tabernariae , the characters in which were taken from low life; they rather seem to have been a union of high comedy and its parody. They were also distinguished from the mimes by the absence of low buffoonery and ribaldry, being remarkable for a refined humour, such as could be understood and appreciated by educated people. They were not performed by regular actors ( his triones ), but by Roman citizens of noble birth, who were not on that account subjected to any degradation, but retained their rights as citizens, and might serve in the army. The Oscan or Opican language, in which these plays were written, was spread over the whole of the south of Italy, and from its resemblance to the Latin could easily be understood by the more educated Romans.