Female Roman pantomime mask
Roman pantomime was a performance act in which the character, the pantomimus, did not speak, but portrayed stories through imitation and movement, supported by a chorus and music. It was an extremely popular art under the Roman empire.
In theatre women were not allowed to participate as actors. This meant that all female-presenting characters in theatre were played by male actors. Female characters were included to best represent the world in which the ancients lived, for realism or comedic purposes only. However, theatre performances were written by men, and performed by men, intended for a male audience. In fact, there is no definitive evidence that women were allowed to watch theatre either. It is thought that slaves, foreigners, children, and women were allowed to join the audience, but only when all the present male citizens had found a seat. This idea is similar to the order in which audiences were formed in the Colosseum.