School dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities . PTBRHIO DANCE. The Pyrrhic dance was introduced Inthe public games at Rome by JuliusCaesar, when it was danced by the childrenof the leading men in Asia and Bithynia. There were other dances, besides thePyrrhic, in which the performers had arms,but these seem to have been entirely mi-metic, and not practised with any view totraining for war. Such was the Carpaea(^Kapiraia) peculiar to the Aenianians andMagnetes, and described by Xenophon inthe Anabasis, Such dances were fre- SALTATIO. quently performed at banquets for the en-tertainment of the
School dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities . PTBRHIO DANCE. The Pyrrhic dance was introduced Inthe public games at Rome by JuliusCaesar, when it was danced by the childrenof the leading men in Asia and Bithynia. There were other dances, besides thePyrrhic, in which the performers had arms,but these seem to have been entirely mi-metic, and not practised with any view totraining for war. Such was the Carpaea(^Kapiraia) peculiar to the Aenianians andMagnetes, and described by Xenophon inthe Anabasis, Such dances were fre- SALTATIO. quently performed at banquets for the en-tertainment of the guests: where also thetumblers (^KvSiaTrjpes) were often intro-duced, who in the course of their danceflung themselves on their head and alightedagain upon their feet. These tumblerswere also accustomed to make their somer-sets over knives and swords, which wascalled Kv§i(TTat/ els fMaxaipas. We learnfrom Tacitus that the German youths alsoused to dance among swords and spearspointed at TUMBLER. Other kinds of dances were frequentlyperformed at entertainments, in Rome aswell as in Greece, by courtezans, many ofwhich were of a very indecent and las-civious nature. Among the dances performed withoutarms one of the most important was theHormos (^opfxos), which was danced atSparta by youths and maidens together:the youth danced first some movementssuited to his age, and of a military nature:the maiden followed in measured steps andwith feminine gestures. Another commondance at Sparta was the bibasis (fiiSaais), inwhich the dancer sprang rapidly from theground and struck the feet behind. Dancing was common among the Romansin ancient times, in connection with reli-gious festivals and rites, because the an-cients thought that no part of the bodyshould be free from the influence of reli-gion. The dances of the Salii, which were SAMBUCA. performed by men of patrician families, aredescribed elsewhere. [Ancilk.] Dancing,however, was not performed by any Romancitizens except in
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1840, booksubjectclassicaldictionarie
