Meanwhile the unruly tone of the theatre which first showed
itself in the preceding year, broke out with worse violence, and some
soldiers and a centurion, besides several of the populace, were killed, and
the tribune of a prætorian cohort was wounded, while they were trying
to stop insults to the magistrates and the strife of the mob. This
disturbance was the subject of a debate in the Senate, and opinions
were expressed in favour of the
prætors having authority to scourge actors. Haterius Agrippa, tribune
of the people, interposed his veto, and was sharply censured in a speech
from Asinius Gallus, without a word from Tiberius, who liked to allow the
Senate such shows of freedom. Still the interposition was successful,
because Augustus had once pronounced that actors were exempt from the
scourge, and it was not lawful for Tiberius to infringe his decisions. Many
enactments were passed to fix the amount of their pay and to check the
disorderly behaviour of their partisans. Of these the chief were that no
Senator should enter the house of a pantomime player, that Roman knights
should not crowd round them in the public streets, that they should exhibit
themselves only in the theatre, and that the prætors should be
empowered to punish with banishment any riotous conduct in the
spectators.
