among the Romans, was what we call a rope-dancer, and the Greeks σκορπιστής. 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 flupidus in funambulo, animum occupat.

At Rome, the funambuli first appeared under the consulship of Sulpicius Peticus and Lucinius 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 Caecilius afterwards promoted them to the theatre.