User:Cynwolfe/Parasites of Apollo

The Parasites of Apollo (Latin Parasiti Apollinis, singular Parasitus Apollinis) was a prestigious theatrical guild in ancient Rome, an association primarily of mime artists and pantomimes. It was formed during the Hannibalic War in 211 BC, the second year the Ludi Apollinares (Apollonian Games) were held. Although it existed in Republican Rome, most evidence for the organization comes from the Imperial era.

The Parasites are known mainly from inscriptions, with only two direct references in literary sources. Their motto was "All's well, the old man's dancing" (Salva res est, saltat senex).

The parasitus and Apollo
In ancient comedy, the parasitus was a stock character, a professional dinner guest or "hanger-on" who attaches himself to a social superior, offering flattery, amusement, and the running of errands in exchange for meals or other sustenance. As with the biological parasite named after the ancient figure, the parasitus depends on a host. In Latin the word is uncommon outside a theatrical context, but in a Roman social setting becomes a symbol of the patron-client relationship.

The guild name may be a play on the theatrical role and the word's original Greek meaning of "dinner guest": the Parasiti Apollinis presented themselves as banquet-companions of Apollo, a god associated with the performing arts particularly in Imperial cult. Mimic performance featured prominently among the events (ludi) of the Apollonian Games. Other inscriptions not mentioning the Parasites associate mime actors and pantomimes with various cults of Apollo, and theatrical personnel hold cult titles such as archiereus synhodi in Greek and sacerdos Apollinis ("priest of Apollo") in Latin. The poet Martial refers to the guild in Epigram 9.28, addressed to the actor Latinus, when he says "call me the parasite of laurel-wearing Phoebus." A confused remark by St. Augustine about the "parasites of Jove" may allude to the Parasiti; Augustine connects these "parasites" to mime-acting and the epulones, the Roman priesthood that oversaw sacrificial feasts in honor of Jove (epulum Iovis), originally for the Plebeian Games (Ludi Plebeii).

The guild
Membership in the Parasites is noted on gravestones or other commemorations of several theatre professionals, found mainly in Latium, Campania, Etruria and Apulia. In all, twelve inscriptions mention the guild. Similar organizations were the Society of Greek Singers, the Corporation of Tragedians and Comedians, and various collegia of pipers, harp players, Roman pipers, musicians, and mime artists. There was a complex local network of theatre associations, as indicated by the several named on a monument from Bovillae that honors a wealthy mime actor for his benefactions. The Parasites of Apollo was probably formed in response to the exclusion of mime actors from the more exalted guild of tragedians, the Artists of Dionysus.

Motto and origin
The guild's motto was supposed to have dated from their founding during the Hannibalic War, the second of the three Punic Wars. Theatrical performances were part of the Ludi Apollinares, the annual games instituted in honor of Apollo in 212 BC in the climate of wartime crisis. During the ludi the following year, a mime performance was taking place in a temporary theater before the Temple of Apollo in the Circus Flaminius. Both Servius and Festus tell the story. As a veteran mime-dancer performed to the music of a piper (tibicen), word arrived that Hannibal was about to attack the Colline Gate. The male citizens rushed out of the theatre to take up arms, and headed into battle. The Romans were victorious, but the fighters became concerned that the sacred continuity of the ludi had been violated. They returned to the theatre, and were relieved to find that no disruption of their religious obligation had occurred after all—the old man and the piper had never stopped: "All's well, the old man's dancing." The new mime guild took Salva res est, saltat senex as their motto.

The saying soon had become a catchphrase: Plautus plays on it in The Bacchides (ca. 189 BC ) when a character remarks "I'm safe, the old man's angry" (Salvus sum, iratus est senex), an "angry" scene being expected from the stock character of the senex. Servius gives an alternative form of the proverb as Omnia secunda, saltat senex, a variation in wording that has little effect on the English translation. The Renaissance dramatist Ben Jonson alludes to the proverb in The Epicene (1609):

Dauphine: How now, Cutbeard, succeeds it or not? Cutbeard: Past imagination, sir, omnia secunda; you could not have prayed to have had it so well: saltat senex, as it is i' the proverb, he does triumph in his felicity; admires the party!

The anecdote from which the motto is derived may be an invented aetiology. No major battle with Hannibal's troops nor any event in 212 corresponds with the date.

Notable Parasiti

 * Marcus Iunius Maior was a freedman and archimimus from Praeneste during the Imperial era.
 * Lucius Aurelius Pylades was a pantomime during the reigns of Marcus Aurelius and Commodus (185–192 AD). He was a patron and priest (sacerdos) of the Parasites at Puteoli, as well as the only freedman known to have been an augur.
 * Lucius Acilius Pompteius Eutyches was an archimimus and a decurion at Bovillae. In 169 AD, Eutyches became the first member of the Commune of Mimes to be named a Pater ("father") as their benefactor, having given each of his fellow members a gift of 25 denarii.

Other Parasiti known by name are Lucius Faenius Faustus and Gaius Fundilius Doctus, both recorded at the Grove of Diana (Nemus Dianae).

DYK

… that All's well, the old man's dancing was the motto of the ancient Roman theatre guild known as the Parasites of Apollo?