FUNAMBULUS, among the Romans, was what we call a rope-dancer, and the Greeks schambolates. See ROPE-DANCER.
There was a funambulus, it seems, who performed at the time when the Hecyra of Terence was acted; and the poet complains, that the spectacle prevented the people from attending to his comedy. Ita populus studio stupidus in funambulo, animum occupat.
At Rome, the funambuli first appeared under the consulate of Sulpicius Paticus and Licinius Stolo, who were the first introducers of the scenic representations. It is added, that they were first exhibited in the island of the Tyber, and that the censors Messala and Cassius afterwards promoted them to the theatre.