1. Ludi scaenici vs. ludi circenses ludi Romani ludi plebii ludi Apollinares ludi Megalenses ludi florales Fabula Fabula praetexta Mime Pantomime Atellan farce Cytheris Laberius Tessera Nero’s ludi maximi

2. Mosaic showing a comic actor playing a slave (Roman, 1 st century CE)

3. Comic scene (2 women consult a sorceress; Roman, 1 st century CE; from the ‘Villa of Cicero’, Pompeii

4. Mosaic from Pompeii showing Roman actors

5. Ivory statue of a tragic actor playing a woman (Roman; late 2nd century CE)

6. Terracotta figure of a comic actor Campania, 150 BCE

7. Reconstruction of Pompey’s theatre/temple complex (55 BCE)

10. You know all about the rest of the games, which hadn't even that amount of charm which less lavish games usually have: for the spectacle was so elaborate as to leave no room for cheerful enjoyment, and I think you need feel no regret at having missed it. For what is the pleasure of a procession of six hundred mules in the Clytemnestra, three thousand bowls in the Trojan Horse, or brightly coloured armour of infantry and cavalry in some battle? These things roused the admiration of the mob; to you they would have brought no delight. Cicero to Marcus Marius

11. Theatre of Marcellus (11 BCE)

12. Porticus of Octavia, next to the theatre of Marcellus

14. Roman theatre, Orange, France

15. Roman theatre. Amman, Jordan

16. Theater ticket/tessera (100-200 CE)

18. The Fall of Icarus (Roman wall painting, Pompeii, 1 st century CE) “Icarus, on the first try, fell next to Nero’s seat and splattered him with blood.”