Clapping is a universal gesture that tells the story of humanity: from the instinctive call of primates to the sacredness of ancient rites, from the theater of Dionysus to Roman politics, up to today’s stadiums and social media. From the sacred rituals of antiquity to the stages of modern theatre, up to contemporary stadiums and squares, applause tells how human beings have learned to translate collective emotion into sound, to organize consensus and, sometimes, to manipulate it. Its form and meaning have transformed over time, following the logic of power, religion and social control. But man has transformed this gesture into a symbolic act: already in the Book of Psalms (Bible, 11th century BC) we read “All people, clap your hands! Acclaim God with shouts of joy”. Human applause therefore becomes sacred acclamation, a way to celebrate the divine presence and discharge emotional excess through the body.
When applause was born in Ancient Greece and Rome: from theater to politics
In ancient Greece, the gesture acquired a public and codified function. In the theater of Dionysus, up to 14,000 spectators expressed enthusiasm and emotion by clapping their hands and shouting. It is in this context that applause becomes a conscious practice of artistic approval.
In Rome, however, the gesture becomes politicised. Emperors, like actors, needed the consent of the crowd, and applause became the visible measure of this. As early as the 1st century BC, Cicero observed that “the feelings of the Roman people are best shown in the theatre”. The people communicated with sound: the rhythm, volume and duration of the beat described the moods of the plebs better than a modern political poll. The emperor Augustus went so far as to regulate applause with precise signals, to avoid chaos, and Nero, a lover of theatricality, paid thousands of applause professionals, without rings so as not to distort the sound, to rhythmically mark three types of applause: the “bricks”, the “tiles” and the “bees”, each with a different meaning and symbol. The gesture therefore seems to take on a performative dimension, no longer just an expression of emotion, but an instrument of participation.
Marcel Mauss and André Leroi-Gourhan have in fact underlined how bodily gestures progressively become “body techniques”, that is, actions learned and transmitted culturally. Clapping hands, from an emotional signal, is thus transformed into a codified act, full of social meanings.
The birth of “paid” applause
Applause, a symbol of consensus, soon also became a commodity. Plutarch already tells us that the playwright Philemon of Syracuse enlisted paid spectators to clap at strategic moments, thus surpassing his rival Menander. In imperial Rome, applause reached its maximum splendor as a language of power. Suetonius and Cassius Dio say that the emperors judged their consent by the roar of the crowd: the louder the noise, the stronger the authority appeared. Thus the gesture, born spontaneously, was transformed into a political instrument, a choreography of consensus designed to represent the unity of the people around the sovereign.
This tradition survives for centuries: in the sixteenth century, the French poet Jean Dourat brought the practice back into vogue by buying tickets as gifts to those who promised applause; in the nineteenth century, real travel agencies were born claqueurs professionals, especially in Paris and Milan.
In 1919, the Teatro della Scala even had an official price list: 25 lire for men and 15 for women. In short, applause was no longer just a sign of approval, but a market and public image strategy.
From medieval sacredness to modern theatricality
With the spread of Christianity, applause underwent a radical transformation. Bodily expressions of approval were gradually replaced by verbal cheers or gestures of reverence, since clapping was considered too “earthly” behavior. Only starting from the Renaissance, with the rebirth of the performing arts and the public dimension of the theatre, did applause re-emerge as a social practice.
In the modern era, the gesture is codified again: in the bourgeois theaters of the nineteenth century it becomes a sign of distinction and civilization. Applauding politely, in the appropriate time and manner, becomes a form of aesthetic and moral education. It is in this period that applause takes on the meaning we attribute to it today: publicly recognizing the value of an action or an individual.
