Fescennine Verses (Fescennina carmina), one of the earliest kinds of Italian poetry, subsequently developed into satire and Roman comic drama.
[1] Originally sung at village harvest-home rejoicing, they made their way into the towns, and became the fashion at religious festivals and private gatherings, especially weddings, to which in later times they were practically restricted.
At first harmless and good-humored, if somewhat coarse, these songs gradually outstripped the bounds of decency; malicious attacks were made upon both gods and men, and the matter became so serious that the law intervened and scurrilous personalities were forbidden by the Twelve Tables (Cicero, De re publica, 4.10; see also Horace epist.
[1] Specimens of the Fescennines used at weddings are the Epithalamium of Manlius (Catullus 61) and the four poems of Claudian in honor of the marriage of Honorius and Maria; the first, however, is distinguished by a licentiousness which is absent in the latter.
1882), in support of Munro's view, translates the expression "verses used by charmers", assuming a noun fescennus, connected with fas fari.