Note 11 — Chapter I · THE FALL OF THE THEATRES
Reading edition
Hist. Augusta, Vita Heliogabali, 25 ‘in mimicis adulteriis ea quae solent simulato fieri effici ad verum iussit’; cf. the pyrrichae described by Suetonius, Nero, 12. The Roman taste for bloodshed was sometimes gratified by mimes given in the amphitheatre, and designed to introduce the actual execution of a criminal. Martial, de Spectaculis, 7, mentions the worrying and crucifixion of a brigand in the mime Laureolus, by order of Domitian:
‘nuda Caledonio sic pectora praebuit urso non falsa pendens in cruce Laureolus.’