Fescenine Verses, licentious poems sung at the private festivals of the ancient Romans, particularly at nuptial celebrations. They derived their name and origin from Fescennium, an Etruscan city, where they seem to have been a rude dramatic entertainment improvised in the intoxication of rustic festivals. They were composed with the most unbounded license, accompanied with uncouth posturing and dances, and gave delight to the yet savage and untaught Romans. The later satire and comedy took their origin from them, and Catullus introduced them into his epithalamia; but in attaining a better literary character these verses hardly improved their morals.