Atellan farce
| Theatre performance popular in ancient Rome (a type of farce). It was an improvised burlesque from low life, but during the last century BC it became fashionable to present it after the performance of a tragedy, and it was given a literary form. Certain stock characters appeared, such as Maccus the glutton, Bucco the fool, Paggus (Pantaloon), and Dossenus (Punch). |
| Atellan farces were named after the town of Atella, near Capua, north of Naples. They were gradually superseded by mime and disappeared about the time of Tiberius, in the early 1st century AD. |
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