among the Romans, was what we call a rope-dancer, and the Greeks schemobates. 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. Ilae populus studio stupidus in funambulo, animum occuparat.

At Rome, the funambuli first appeared under the confulate of Sulpicius Paticius 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.

In the Floralia, or ludi Florales, held under Galba, there: there were funambulatory elephants, as we are informed by Suetonius. Nero also showed the like, in honour of his mother Agrippina. Vopiscus relates the fame of the time of Carinus and Numerianus.