Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities (1898)

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Nani

（νάννοι, νᾶνοι, σκωπαῖοι, στίλπωνες). Pygmies or dwarfs, beings of diminutive stature, kept for amusement and as rarities among the number

Nanus. (Rich.)

of State slaves (Suet. Tib. 61), both males and females (nanae) (Lamprid. Alex. Sev. 34). They were neither always distorted in figure, nor always of mental imbecility, like the moriones, for they were taught music and other accomplishments (Propert. iv. 8, 41). Deformity, however, added to their value; and this was often caused by artificial means, children being kept in a casting or frame to stunt their growth (De Sublim. 44, 5). See Mayor on Juv.viii. 32; Marquardt, Privatleben, 152; and Pumilio.