The Public Entertainer

Abstract

What do I mean by public entertainer? Above all, the performer was a professional, meaning he or she was paid for his or her services and was more or less available to be hired by various members of the public. Public entertainers may have been attached to a royal court. They may have performed in public theatres and arenas, or in taverns, coffeehouses, and marketplaces. Wealthy individuals hired them for private showings. Some extremely wealthy patrons, such as the widow Ummidia Quadratilla, who lived in first-century CE Rome, kept a troupe of pantomimes to entertain her at home, and did not mind hiring them out to turn a bit of profit, or lending them for public performances as a civic gesture in order to enhance her social status.