There were many different types of percussion instruments. For instance, tambourines and drums were used, as well as a device known as the scabellum<\/em>, a kind of clapper played<\/a> with one\u2019s foot. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This latter one had the advantage of being something somebody could use while playing the main instrument with their hands. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The cymbala<\/em> were little metal disks tapped together to make a rattling sound. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Romans played various types of pipe organs as well. A particularly notable one was the hydraulis<\/em>, a large kind of organ that used water pressure to create a loud noise. <\/p>\n\n\n\n However, none of the Roman instruments used were as crucial as the lyre. This instrument was somewhat similar to a harp but was considerably smaller. <\/p>\n\n\n\n One cradled it in their arms with one hand and played it with the other by plucking the strings of the device. This instrument had become esteemed as the height of musical culture in the Eastern Mediterranean from the sixth century BC, and Roman culture absorbed it as a result.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, eventually, the Romans innovated in its use, developing the cithara<\/em> or kithara<\/em>. This was larger and heavier than the more traditional lyre and emitted a louder noise when played. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It lies somewhere between a harp and a guitar in modern instrumentation. The name itself is that from which the word guitar has evolved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It should be noted when examining these instruments that the Romans were not exactly innovators in this field. <\/p>\n\n\n\n For instance, lute-like instruments had been used by the ancient Egyptians and in Mesopotamia, the region approximating Iraq today, for thousands of years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Flutes had been used by the Etruscans, a people who ruled an advanced civilization in Tuscany during the seventh and sixth centuries BC when Rome was still little more than a collection of villages on the banks of the River Tiber. <\/p>\n\n\n\n However, as with so much of their culture, the Romans were primarily indebted to the Greeks. It was from them that they acquired a whole array of different instruments, most notably the lyre and various types of pipe instruments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As with their instruments, the Romans were profoundly influenced in their music by the cultures of the Mediterranean which preceded their own, notably those of the Greeks and the Etruscans. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This was heavily instrument centred, rather than being based on lyrics being sung. Nevertheless, there were often lyrics involved too. <\/p>\n\n\n\n One famous example which has come down to us is the \u2018Secular Hymn\u2019 or \u2018Song of the Ages\u2019 which the poet Horace was commissioned to write by the Emperor Augustus in 17 BC for the celebration of the Secular Games. This began as follows: <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cO Phoebus, Diana queen of the woodlands, <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Bright heavenly glories, both worshipped forever <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n And cherished forever, now grant what we pray for <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n At this sacred time,\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n It is clear that lyrics where they existed tended to overlap with the rhyming structure of Roman poetry and epic literature and Roman music, such as it was, was an extension of Roman literature set to music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It would have all been heavily instrument-based, with pipes, organs, flutes, lyres, and guitars forming the major basis of it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n While percussion instruments did exist, as we have seen, they would not have been central in the ubiquitous use of drums in modern popular music. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Many instruments would have been played to musical notation, which Romans had also acquired from the Greeks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Our inability to listen to Roman music today is frustrating when we know how central it was to their society. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The regularity with which we see musical instruments depicted on the walls of villas and houses at Pompeii<\/a> attests to this. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Much of this would have been as background music for social events. It is not difficult to imagine Roman patricians visiting each other\u2019s homes on social occasions to hear a kithara<\/em> or lyre being played in the background. <\/p>\n\n\n\n However, much of it would have been at more formal occasions, notably religious festivities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Music and religion were inseparable in the ancient world. Apollo was one of the foremost gods and the patron of music and dance. His supposed son Orpheus was closely associated with the lyre. <\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.historydefined.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/1920px-Scena_di_commedia_musici_ambulanti_da_villa_di_cecerone_a_pompei_9985_03-1024x800.jpeg\")
Who Influenced Roman Music?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nWhat Was Roman Music Like?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Music and Roman Society<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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