Bassilla, the Tenth Muse

The Story of a Roman Actress Told by a Funerary Stele

In the Archaeological Museum of Aquileia, in northern Italy, there is a Greek-language funerary stele dating back to the 3rd century AD. It was dedicated by her colleagues to an artist of the time: the mime Bassilla.

The excellent actor Heraclides dedicated this monument
to the one who, in the past, in many places and many cities,
received thunderous applause on stage for her versatile talent
in acting and dancing,
to the one who often died on stage,
but never as she did this time:
to the mime Bassilla, the tenth Muse.
Even in death, she received the same honor
she enjoyed in life,
for her body rests in a soil sacred to the Muses.
Your colleagues tell you:
"Rest easy, Bassilla, no one is immortal!"

Mimae, like Bassilla, were actresses who participated in mime performances, a highly popular form of theater in Imperial Rome. Mime was considered a lesser genre compared to tragedy and comedy, characterized by scenes from everyday life, often parodic and grotesque, with colloquial language and a certain freedom of movement and improvisation.

One of the distinctive features of mime was that the actors did not wear masks.

In traditional Roman theater, women usually did not perform, and young masked male actors played female roles; however, in mime, the female parts were performed by women who could engage in the licentious nudatio mimarum at the end of the shows. This was likely one of the reasons why this type of performance was so popular, but it also explains why actresses were often regarded on the same level as prostitutes.

Despite this, talented actresses who excelled in both acting and dancing, like Bassilla, managed to earn the respect of their audiences and colleagues and were sometimes honored with monuments such as the stele of Aquileia.