ROMAN

THEATER:
Surviving
Playwrights
Presented by:
Bernard, Arizza Bianca F.
DRA MA
CO M E D
Y
TRAG E
DY
 TITUS
LIVIUS
PATAVINUS
“LIVY”

A Roman
 Roman
Theater
evolves in
five stages
1. Dances to flute music
2. Obscene improvisational verse and dances
to flute music
3. Medleys of dances to flute music
4. Comedies with story lines and sections of
lyric poetry to be sung
5. Comedies with story lines and song, with
additional –often comedic- performance
 Phlyake
ATELLAN Stocsk
FA
lew
RdCE characters
mime
 VERSUS music and
FESCENNI + dancing
- Very obscene
poems
FABULA
SATURAE
HISTRIO fabula = story
NES saturae = a full
dish
 FABULA
= l o ose
PALLIATA pall i ata
Greek charac cloak
ters in Greek
settings
 FABULA FABULAE
PRAETEXTA
praetexta = a white PALIIATAE
pallium = the
robe originally worn by himation (a Greek
an ancient Roman cloak)
Filled with stock
magistrate or priest
Roman plays about characters in an
Romans
ACTIN
G
TROU
Wall painting (1st century AD) from
Pompeii depicting a
 E Collegium Scr
B C ibarum
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Asisstorciioantiuomque
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n d ctors.
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in
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Wall painting (1st century AD) from
Pompeii depicting a
“The Chariot Race”
by Alexander von
Rubens’s depiction of
Briseis being given
& Roman Empire,
acting was not a
respectable thing to
do.
• Actors couldn’t
vote
• They couldn’t
serve in the
military
• Punished for a
INFAM
IA
Legal
disenfranchisement

Loss of social
revocation of suffrage
standing
Trio of musicians playing
an aulos, cymbala,
 Plautus,
Terence and
Seneca
  MACCIUS = a clownish stock-
character
 PLAUTUS = flat-footed or flat-eared

• A highly successful, comic

playwright in late third-century and
early second-century Rome.
• The first to make Greek New
Comedy a truly Roman genre. 
Titus Maccius • It is said Plautus wrote about 130
Plautus pieces mainly derived from Greek
(/ˈplɔːtəs/; c. 254 – 184 comedies.
BC)
Early works: Date/period
 Cistellaria (The unknown:
Casket Comedy)  Amphitruo
 Miles Gloriosus  Asinaria (The
(The Swaggering Comedy of Asses)
Soldier)  Aulularia (The
 Stichus (200 Pot of Gold)
BCE)  Captivi (The
 Pseudolus (191 Prisoners)
BCE)  Curculio (The
Weevil)
Later works:  Epidicus
 Bacchides (The  Menaechmi (The
Bacchis Sisters) Menaechmus
 Casina Brothers)
 Persa (The  Mercator (The
Businessman)
 Adaptations of 4th
century BCE Greek MIME
New Comedy BAWDY
Latin Comedy
additions JOKES
PLAUTUS FREQUENTLY USES
WORDPLAY, ALLITERATION
AND PUNS TO DELIVER A
SERIES OF DEVASTATING
LINGUISTICAL ACROBATICS.
HA! You’re
watching a
play!!!
PISTOCLERUS: I'm more afraid of your allure than
of being lured to the bed itself. You are an evil
creature. A lurking lair is not appropriate for this
young man, woman. … Why am I, a young man,
afraid, you ask? To enter into a wrestling arena of
this sort, where one sweats into debts? Where I
should take up debt instead of a discus, disgrace
instead of a race?
BACCHIS I: You talk beautifully!
PISTOCLERUS: Where I would take up a turtledove
instead of a sword, and where someone would put a
drinking cup in my hand instead of a boxing glove, a
ladies' chamber pot instead of a helmet, a braided
wreath instead of military decorations, dice instead
of a spear, a soft cloak instead of a breastplate,
where I'd be given a bed instead of a horse, and
would lie down with a whore instead of a shield? Get
away from me, away!

BACCHIS I: You are much too rough.

PISTOCLERUS: I am to myself.
BACCHIS I: So make yourself super-soft… Go on then. By
Pollux I don't care, you don't have to be with me, if it's not
what you want.
PISTOCLERUS: Am I nothing at all, then, can't I control
myself?
BACCHIS I: What is it you're afraid of?
PISTOCLERUS: It's nothing, just nonsense. Woman, I put
myself in your power. I am yours, command me.
BACCHIS I: You're sweet. Now, this is what I want you to do.
 • The first playwright of color
• His first play, staged in 166 B.C.
was a success
• Terence's dramatic work was of
two kinds: fairly close
translations of the later Greek
comedy writers and
"contaminations"  
• All of the 6 plays Terence wrote
Publius Terentius Afer
(/ˈtɛrəns/; 185 – 159 BC)
have survived
• Andria Tormentor
- 166 BC -163BC)
• Hecyra • Eunuchus
(The (The
Mother-in Eunuch
Law -161BC)
-165BC) • Phormio -
• Heauton 161 BC
Timoroume • Adelphi
nos (The
(The Self Brothers -
160 BC)
 e re Nowhe
l a y s w graphi re near
n c e 's p ​ c or v io
Te re d t ha n
e r e f i n e lent
m o r ’
u t u s
Pla Terence crea
t es
suspense
 Less
rowdy
Deeper
ironies are
Characters
Thesaner
meter is
regular
Constructions are
Adaptations of 4th
Fewersturdier
plot
century BCE Greek
holesdirty
Fewer
New Comedy
Latin Comedy jokes
Some elegant
TERENCE’S
additions Latin
Plautus was the practical
playwright; Terence, the
elegant literary
craftsmen.
 • A Roman philosopher,
statesman and dramatist of
the Silver Age of Latin
literature.
• Studied Rhetoric and Stoic
Philosophy
• Seneca kept running afoul of
Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Emperors
 (/ˈsɛnɪkə/; 4 BC – AD 65)
Caligula jealou Seneca avoided
 (37 to 41 sy execution
AD)
Claudius Messalina Island
adulter
Agrippina
(41 to 54 (Emperor’s of (second
wife) Corsic y wife)
AD)
Nero a
accused Seneca accepted
Seneca  Senec
of participating in a the sentence and
(54 as a a plan called the his wife chose to
AD) councilo retire "Pisonian die with him.
 TRAGE
DY
on al
Pers
life

a nc e o r
f o rm
for per rivate
fo r p n ly ?
t a tio n o
rec i
• “Troades” • “Agamem
(“The non”
Trojan • “Thyestes”
Women”)
• “Oedipus” • “Apocoloc
• “Medea” yntosis”
• “Hercules
Furens”
(“The
Mad
Hercules”)
• “Phoenissa
e” (“The
VIOLE HOR
NCE ROR

“OEDIP “THYEST
GRATIAS
TIBI
AGO!