Beardsley, Aubrey 1872-1898 - Bathyllus taking the pose (1896)

Bathyllus was a dancer/performer of

pantomimus A mime artist, or simply mime (from Greek , , "imitator, actor"), is a person who uses ''mime'' (also called ''pantomime'' outside of Britain), the acting out of a story through body motions without the use of speech, as a theatrical medium ...

in Rome during the period of Augustus. Born in Alexandria, he was the favourite of Maecenas. Tacitus, '' Annals'', 1.54 He is often described with the performer Pylades, who was seen as the epitome of tragic performance, while Bathyllus was seen as the epitome of comedic performance. They were both former slaves and they are both credited with having modernised pantomime in Rome adding different forms of dance which are often described as erotic. Each founded a school and had some political influence in Rome occasionally leading to their supporters clashing in the streets. According to Juvenal, a pantomime named Bathyllus, dancing, provoked Roman matrons to a state of sexual frenzy. Bathyllus appears in the illustrated edition of Juvenal's satire 'Against Women' by Aubrey Beardsley. References to a different, earlier, Bathyllus are found in the writing of

Horace Quintus Horatius Flaccus (; 8 December 65 – 27 November 8 BC), known in the English-speaking world as Horace (), was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus (also known as Octavian). The rhetorician Quintilian regarded his ' ...

( epode 14) who describes him as beloved of Polycrates the Tyrant and the poet, Anacreon, who described him in his 22nd ode.

References

1st-century BC Romans 1st-century Romans Ancient Roman theatre practitioners Ancient Roman dancers Pantomime Roman-era Alexandrians Imperial Roman slaves and freedmen Gaius Maecenas {{ancientRome-bio-stub