1. Rome 750 BCE Rome founded Etruria – 650 – 450 BCE
Included modern Pisa and Siena =Tuscany
391 - Romans subjugate the Etruscans

2. RomeRepublic – 509 – 27 BCE
Roman theatre was associated with festivals
Tragedy&Comedy w/o philosophy or questioning Roman values, borrowed from Greeks without being too “Greek” about it.
Punic Wars = Rome vs. Carthage (North Africa)
Rome’s victory resulted in control of the central and western Mediterranean region

4. Empire – 27 BCE – 476 CE
Move toward “dictatorship” led by the emperior
Theatre and Entertainment
Variety shows filled with spectacle and thrills
Bread and Circus
Collapse of Western Empire – 476 CE
End of Byzantium (Eastern) Empire

5. Theatre and Roman Religion
Originally Roman religion embraced theatre
Ludi Romani

7. Emperor Constantine converts to Christianity
4th century C.E.

8. Theatre is considered pagan
Penalties for attending theatre/entertainment instead of church

9. The Decline of Roman Theatre
Coincided with the downfall of the western Roman empire and the sacking of Rome by barbarian tribes
Rise of Christianity also contributed
Period of dispersal and loss of Greek and Roman knowledge after fall of Rome: the dark ages
© 2012, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

10. Dramatic Criticism in Rome
Like Roman drama, Roman dramatic criticism was based on the work of others, especially Aristotle
The best-known writer of dramatic theory and criticism in the Roman world was Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus)
Horace
© 2012, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
(Culver Pictures)

11. Roman Comedy, Roman Tragedy
Plautus (Titus Maccius Plautus)
The Menaechmi
Terence (Publius Terentuis Afer)
Seneca (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)
Plautus
(New York Public Library, Picture Collection)
Terence
(New York Public Library, Picture Collection)
© 2012, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

12. Influences on Roman Theatre/Performance
G – A – M – E - S
Greek Theatre
Atellan Farces – North Italy
Mimes – South Italy and Greece
Etruscan Festivals- north of Rome
Spectacle, Sport and Popular Entertainment

13. Roman Comedy Romans liked the Greek New Comedies
Took the form and created their own
Changes Romans made include
No chorus
Additional musical accompaniment
Plautus’ plays could have 2/3 singing making similar to our musical comedies (Forum)
Eavesdropping which lead to misunderstandings and complications

14. Greek Theatre - Fabula Palliata
Pallium-word to describe Greek dress

15. Terence (Publius Terentius Afef) 185-159 BCE
Wrote comedies
Borrowed heavily from the Greek comedies to the extent of copying the plays
Liked to combine elements from two plays and put it into one play
Former slave
Possibly the first major African playwright in the western theatre (His name “Afef” means from Africa)
Used as literary model for Middle Ages and Renaissance
Humor is verbal

16. Plautus 254 – 184 BCE Started as an actor
Just before Terence
Started as an actor
Wrote his plays by combining song, dance, and native Italian farce with the characters and plots from Hellenistic Greek comedies (New Comedy)
His comedies were often sung, some up to 2/3 of the play, they were like modern musical comedies
Though he borrowed from others, his plays went on to inspire writers in the Renaissance including Shakespeare and Moliere.
No chorus, did not deal with social or political issue
Miles Gloriosus and Pseudolus

17. Fabula togata Roman dress; toga Plautus borrowed from togata
No plays survived with only three known writers
Togata not as popular as Palliata
Latin comedy based on incidents of contemporary daily life in Roman towns;
Its alternative name was tabernaria, from taberna, a poor man's house.
Smaller Cast, plot simpler, less restrained by social conventions, and more overtly sexual, than in the imported palliata.

18. Huge influence on future writers
Menaechmi used as basis for Comedy of Errors - Shakespeare

19. Roman Comedy
slapstick characters and pratfalls were welded onto the tradition of Greek New Comedy, which was imported into Rome after its conquest of Greece
New Comedy is the ancestor of sitcoms, with plots focusing on domestic issues, usually involving boy-meets-girl-parents-forbid-marriage and the intervention of a clever slave to save the day. (like Forum)
Roman comic playwrights added lively action, ferocious puns, rude jokes, and lots of physical comedy.

20. These plays were performed at religious festivals sponsored by junior officials in the Roman government.
The audience were rowdy
drama competed for audience attention with tightrope walkers, jugglers, and gladiatorial combats.

21. Roman Tragedy Early Roman Tragedy – no surviving plays Later Tragedy
Like comedy- two styles
Fabula crepidata-Greek (a Greek shoe always worn with the pallium.)
Fabula praetexta – Roman
Roman tragedies that survive, all but one is by Seneca (4 BCE – 65 CE)
The only surviving praetexta is not believed to have been written by Seneca, but the play features him as a character

22. Seneca

23. Seneca 4BCE-65CE Born in Cordoba, Spain but sent to Rome at early age.
Wrote about stoicism but his life was not stoic
Noted orator and politician
Exiled twice from Rome, once due to Caligula’s jealousy and once adultery with the Emperor’s niece and political reasons
Chief tutor and later advisor to Nero
Nero asked Seneca to kill himself, which he did

24. Seneca’s Tragedies like the Greeks
May have been written as “closet dramas”
Similar to Greek tragedies and plots are based on Greek tales
Used a chorus

25. Seneca’s plays were different from the Greeks
Violence was seen on stage whereas the Greeks had violence unseen
Characters do not have tragic flaws but are overcome by emotions. Ex. Revenge
Supernatural beings appear in plays; ghosts
Long monologues (soliloquies)
Plays come off as melodramatic
Influenced Renaissance playwrights
Hamlet is described as a Senecan revenge tragedy

26. Seneca Born in Spain, educated in Rome Taught Nero who became Emperor
Plays were probably never performed in Rome’s public theatres
Because plays survived, his work was very influential on renaissance writers

27. Seneca’s influence on Renaissance writers
Divided play into 5 episodes, Renaissance adopted the 5 act play format
Elaborate speeches
Morality – unrestrained emotion leads to evil
Scenes of violence and horror
Magic, death and human and superhuman worlds
Characters dominated with a single obsessive passion that drives them to doom – psychological motivations and unified characters
Technical devices – asides, soliloquies, confidantes

28. Atellan Farce Masked performers Stock Characters
Closest surviving tradition-
Commedia dell'arte

29. Atellan Farce – fabula Atellana
Town of Atella, near modern Naples
Farces probably imported to Rome around 275 BCE
Probably derived from southern Italian mimes who probably came from Greek mimes
Short performances, largely improvised and based on domestic situations or myths
Stock characters with fixed costume and mask

31. Atellan Farce

32. Influenced Commedia and later, Punch and Judy

33. Greek Mimes – Southern Italian Mimes (fabula riciniata)

34. Phlyakes

35. Roman Comedies had stock characters
Ex. Plautus
Clever Servant

36. Etruscan influences Etruria – Kingdom north of Rome Etruscan Culture
Religious Festivals
(partly religious, partly secular)
Included a variety of activities
Acting
Flute playing
Dancing
Juggling
Prize fighting

37. Musicians and Dancers imported from Etruria to appease Gods
Rituals were often performed with masks and with music

38. Roman Perfectionist
Etruscans and Romans believed religious parts of festivals should be perfect, without mistakes. Any mistakes meant the festival was repeated.
Instauratio – repetition due to mistakes
ludi Romani repeated 11 times between BCE
ludi Plebii repeated seven times in one year
Rome had up to 170 sacred days in a year, 101 of the involved theatre

39. Ludi Romani Tarquin (616-579 BCE)establish ludi Romani
Oldest Roman festival
Featured Greek Drama
Also chariot races, boxing and other entertainments
The Ludi Romani took up half the month of September (5th to 19th). 
Latin word ludus means "game," "play" (as opposed to work), or "sport." 

40. Ludi (games) and feriae (holiday)
In 100 BC various ludi took up 57 days of the year, while by the fourth century AD they occupied 177 days.  

41. Popular Entertainment
Under the Empire – “Bread and Circus”
Wealth, slave labor, grain allowances all lead for free time for free people
Roman’s were like our modern channel switchers
354 CE Theatre staged on 100 days with 75 days for chariot races and gladiatorial sports, all associated with a festival.

42. Popular Entertainments
Circus like entertainments
Chariot racing
Trick riding and horse races
Mock battles including sea battles
Fighting
Prize fighting, wrestling, gladiators, animals
Romans taken by the games involving life and death

43. Circus Maximus

45. Flavian Amphitheater or the Coliseum - 80 AD
Flavian Amphitheater or the Coliseum AD animals died in inagural 100 days

46. Banned Permanent Stone Theatres banned in Rome Used wooden structures
Above based on wall paintings in Rome and Pompeii
this one, used for performances at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Malibu, CA, October 1994.

47. Roman Theatre Entertainment and Bread and Circuses
Many slaves to do mundane labor
Placed many out of work, left the country for city
Much of Rome’s populace was poor and many unemployed.
This is a recipe for disaster if they’re not kept occupied.
Emperor’s, at state expense, would put on massive entertainment events.
Chariot races at the Circus Maximus.
Gladiator battles at the Colosseum.
Parades, theatre, etc.
Everybody also got grain rations.
Roman Theatre
First theatre was performed in temporary venues
Some attempts were made to build permanent theatres around 170 BCE – 150 BCE but stopped do to the belief that theatre would be harmful to public morality
Sitting at theatre events prohibited by Senate to promote manly Roman values
146 - Rome sacks Corinth and makes all of Greece a Roman province;
145 BC L. Mummius built a wooden theater with seats to celebrate his triumphs. 
Plautus’ and Terence’s plays were never performed in permanent theaters in their lifetimes

48. Rome eventually built theatres

49. Le Théâtre Antique d'Orange

50. Bosra, Syria

51. Roman Theatres Freestanding structures with tiered audience section
Seating area generally larger than Greeks
Semicircular orchestra

52. Antalya, Turkey

53. Pompey Theatre, Rome
55 BC Pompey erected the first permanent stone theater at Rome.
Some opposition to theatre in Rome
Too Greek
Just for entertainment and not to please the gods
A temple of Venus was placed at the top of the seating area so that the rows of seats appeared to be steps leading up to the temple to appease opposition

55. Roman Theatre Terms Cavea – the seating area, like the Greeks theatron
Orchestra – like the Greek orchestra
Scaena – skene or scene house
Pulpitum – raised platform stage
Auleum – front curtain raised and lowered on telescoping poles
Siparium - backdrop

56. Roman Comic Actors The actors of Roman comedy were all men
five actors shared out all the different roles
The costumes consisted of a tunic and a pallium,
long for female characters and short for male characters.
The actors also wore masks,
wildly distorted stereotypes,
not very realistic
funny.

58. The Roman empire in AD 180 with the death of Emperor Marcus Aurelius

59. The split
The empire is eventually and officially divided into two halves: the western and eastern Roman empires.