Their original home seems to have been Sicily; from there they spread to the mainland and settled in Rome, where their success compromised that of tragic and comic poets. The profession of i. was one of those that entailed, for those who practiced it, the *minima capitis deminutio*, as a degrading occupation.
The Catholic Church, from its earliest centuries, began a determined struggle against them for a twofold reason: the immorality they brought onto the stage and their being employed in the mockery of Christian rites. As regards the first point, immorality, even pagan testimonies bear witness to II. Seneca affirms: “nothing is more dangerous than to linger at any spectacle” (*Epist.*, I, 7). Particularly immoral among the i. were the “timelici,” so called because they danced before Bacchus, called Timele, exhibiting every kind of shamelessness and triviality to amuse the public (Martial, *Epigramm.*, I, 76). So great was the immodesty of the performances, the words, and the music that even Tiberius complained of them in the Senate and forbade such displays. But they were later readmitted by Nero, who in turn had to prohibit them because of the spread of public dishonesty (Tacitus, *Annales*, IV, 14).
mosaic, wall (Parenzo) and floor (Parenzo, Orsera, Trieste, Pola), the latter truly typical of the region, and the series of marble *plutei* of the 6th cent. at Parenzo and Pola. Notable contributions of barbarian art are given by the ciboria of Pola and Cittanova, while it is only in the 11th cent. that building activity resumes with various religious edifices, such as the Assunta of Trieste (now S. Giusto), S. Clemente and S. Stefano of Pola, S. Sofia of Due Castelli, S. Maria of Muggia Vecchia, S. Martino of S. Lorenzo del Paesantico, of the 11th cent., is the last echo of Ravenna, with the sacello of S. Giusto in Trieste and the episcopal S.ma Trinità of Rovigno.
Various castles mark the domain of the feudal nobility (Pietrapelosa, Momiano), while the Communes enliven the civic Palaces (partially surviving that of Pola, 1260). S. Lorenzo del Paesantico has intact walls (20th cent.) and fine later walled enclosures are found at Muggia, Cittanova, Cherso, Pirano. Lombard echoes appear at the dawn of the 13th cent. in the baptistery of Capodistria, while Marchigian styles mark the S. Francesco of Pola, dating from the early 14th cent. The chapel of the Bishops of Gallignana is the sole example of pure Gothic, of which the honeycomb ceilings of many presbyteries of churches or chapels are an echo (characteristic in I. are the rustic little churches widespread at all times). The Serenissima brings its trilobed ogives into the civil buildings of Capodistria, Parenzo, Pirano, Dignano and into the limpid façade of the duomo of Muggia. A somewhat harsh but graceful Renaissance is shown by the churches of Ossero, Cherso, San Vincenti, with their fine tripartite fronts on the lines of the Duomo of Sebenico.
Stone sculpture has no great examples; more widespread is that in wood in carved altars, which show Friulian echoes. Painting, which has notable aspects for the 11th–12th cents. at S. Lorenzo del Paesantico and at San Vincenti, and includes the admirable musical instruments of Trieste and the frescoes of Muggia Vecchia of the 13th cent., leaves clear traces through the Venetian coloring of Paolo in Trieste, of the Vivarini, of
(1) *Compania Fotocelere - Torino* ISTRIA — The port and the bell tower of S. Giorgio (16th cent.) — Pirano.
those who mock modesty and exalt shamelessness in their public performances sin against charity and against modesty or against the virtue they deride in the specific case, since they are guilty of direct scandal.
This judgment, if it has only historical value for the ancient i., has by analogy a present value for the way of behaving of those who in some manner are their heirs in the art of entertaining: extras, variety artists, film stars and idols, theatre artists, radio commentators, etc.