An interesting thing about a man is that he has always liked to be entertained. From the very beginning of civilization, there have been acrobat jugglers, animal trainers, and clowns to provide this entertainment so we cannot really know when the first acrobats appeared. But when we think of acrobats today we think of the circus. And by going back to the first circus, we can get an idea of how today’s kinds of acrobats originated. The first and largest circus of ancient times was the Circus Maximums in Rome. It was first begun in the third century B.C. and was chiefly built for chariot races. But the atmosphere of that circus was very much like some of ours today.
It was great big entertainment for the masses. At the same time, in other theatres, all kinds of entertainment were available such as we associate with the circus today. There were jugglers, acrobats, ropewalkers, and animal trainers. For about a thousand years after Roman times, the “organized” kind of circus disappeared. There were wandering groups of performers —and they included acrobats, jugglers, and ropewalkers. The first time acrobats appeared in a regular kind of circus again was in England in 1768. They appeared together with clowns and rope- walkers, and people who did trick riding on horses. So you see that acrobats have been entertaining people for thousands of years—and are still among the favorite performers in a circus.
