CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Music and Dance: Forms of
Representation in Pictorial and
Written Sources
Friederike Fless and Katja Moede
Music and dance are central elements of Roman religious rituals. Musicians like flute-
players (tibicines) and lyre-players (fidicines) (figs. 18.1 and 18.3) take part in many
processions and sacrifices. Players of brass instruments (aeneatores) (figs. 18.2 and
18.3), playing either horns (cornicines) or two different kinds of trumpets (tubicines
and liticines), are in addition participants in both religious and military parades.
Moreover, specialized musical instruments are reported for cults that were transferred
from the Greek east, like the cult of Magna Mater (Cybele) or Isis: the cymbals
(kymbala) and shallow drums (tympana) of the cult of Cybele and the rattles
(sistra) of the Isis cult. The instruments dominated the outward perception of these
cults so strongly that they came to symbolize the cults both in written and in depicted
tradition.
Dance performances were also characteristic of many Roman cults. Ancient writ-
ten sources claimed that especially armed dances had a long tradition dating back
to the royal period. This is paralleled by the long tradition of flute-playing in cults.
Music and dance were considered by ancient sources as traditional and noteworthy
elements of Roman ritual, while being changed over time with the introduction of
new cults. The potential of research to describe the specific qualities of music and
dance in Roman culture is, however, limited. Neither the rhythm, melody, and sound
of the instruments nor the choreography of the dances can be reconstructed for the
different rituals. Our sources simply do not contain that kind of information, even
though single instruments were either discovered or reconstructed after depictions.
Even if the religious-aesthetic dimensions of music and dance are not accessible
to us, some specific questions such as the organization and social position of musi-
cians and dancers can be examined. Furthermore, on the basis of the written and