The aediles, who had to expend this sum, were obliged to defray any additional amount out of their own pockets; and it is not probable that they at this time contributed often or considerably from their own resources.

That the new stage was generally under Greek influence, is proved by its very name (-scaena-, -- skene--).

It was no doubt at first designed merely for musicians and buffoons of all sorts, amongst whom the dancers to the flute, particularly those then so celebrated from Etruria, were probably the most distinguished; but a public stage had at any rate now arisen in Rome and it soon became open also to the Roman poets.
Ballad Singers, -Satura- -- Censure of Art There was no want of such poets in Latium.

Latin "strolling minstrels" or "ballad-singers" (-grassatores-, -spatiatores-) went from town to town and from house to house, and recited their chants (-saturae-( 4)), gesticulating and dancing to the accompaniment of the flute.
The measure was of course the only one that then existed, the so-called Saturnian.( 5) No distinct plot lay at the basis of the chants, and as little do they appear to have been in the form of dialogue.

We must conceive of them as resembling those monotonous -- sometimes improvised, sometimes recited--ballads and -tarantelle-, such as one may still hear in the Roman hostelries.