Definition: Horace, in his Epistle to Augustus, is our primary source for the term fescennine verse. Fescennine verse was a precursor of Roman comedy and was satirical, bawdy, and improvizational, used mainly at festivals or weddings (nuptialia carmina), and as invective, according to George E. Duckworth, in The Nature of Roman Comedy. The Fescennine verses are thought to be different from the performance the Romans instituted on the occasion of a great plague in 363-4 B.C., which is described by Livy and may actually be the similar Atellan Farce (fabula atellana).
The name Fescennine comes either from the Etruscan town of Fescennium (as Atellan is assumed to come from the Oscan town of Atella) or from a word for warding off witchcraft (fascinum).
