>>3186123The closest entertainment to idols back in the day for them was actually the Theater, and it was quite strange compared to our own.
>Because the audience would not stay quiet the actors had to wear costumes. The actors wore masks – brown for men, white for women, smiling or sad depending on the type of play. The costumes showed the audience who the person was – a purple gown for a rich man, a striped toga for a boy, a short cloak for a soldier, a red toga for a poor man, a short tunic for a slave etc.>Women were not allowed act, so their parts were normally played by a man or young boys wearing a white mask.>The actors spoke the lines, but a second actor mimed the gestures to fit the lines, such as feeling a pulse to show a sick person, making the shape of a lyre with fingers to show music. The plays were often violent and could result in the death of an actor by mistake.And it's worth noting that, unlike today, where entertainers are considered high on the societal totem pole, in the Roman days, entertainers were considered about as high in society as slaves, possibly lower on the rung. What odd times, they were, when your societal status was raised not by entertaining the masses with performance, but by writing your own oratory at the state house.
