Quintus Roscius Gallus

Quintus Roscius Gallus (c. 126 BC, † 62 BC) was a Roman actor. He was born as a freedman in Solonium at Lanuvium.

Equipped with a pleasant face and a muscular figure, he received universal praise for its grace and elegance on stage. He studied the performances and gestures of the finest defenders in the Roman Forum, particularly Hortensius Hortalus, and gave his findings as to Cicero on, who had taken courses with him. The two often competed in a friendly rivalry about whether the speaker or the actor could express a thought or feeling full effect. Roscius wrote a treatise in which he compared acting and oratory together. Quintus Catulus Lutatius wrote a quatrain in his honor, and the dictator Sulla gave him a gold ring, the badge of the equestrian order, a remarkable distinction for an actor in Rome, where the profession was usually met with disdain.

Like his contemporary Clodius Aesopus Roscius amassed an enormous fortune, and it seems that he has withdrawn some time before his death from the stage. In the year 76 BC, he was sued by Gaius Fannius Chaerea for 50,000 sesterces and defended by Cicero in a famous speech.