The Roman Dramatists

Rome, was a town dominated by Etruria, North of Rome in 753 B.C. In 509 B.C., the Etruscan ruler was expelled, and Rome became a republic. In the 4^th Century B.C., Rome expanded, and by 265 B.C. controlled the Italian peninsula, then Sicily, then several Greek territories. Rome remained Republic from 509-27 B.C. and became an empire from 27 B.C.-476 A.D.

By 240 B.C., Greek Theatre was familiar to Romans, translated into Latin, and brought to Rome.

The first record of drama is found at the Ludi Romani (Roman Festival or Roman Games). By 345 A.D., there were 175 festivals a year, 101 devoted to theatre. In 55 B.C., the first stone theatre was built in Rome (by Julius Caesar) The first important works of Roman literature were the tragedies and comedies that Livius Andronicus, a greek slave, wrote from 240 BC. Five years later, Gnaeus Naevius also began to write drama. No plays from these writers have survived. While both dramatists composed in both genres, Andronicus was most appreciated for his tragedies and Naevius for his comedies.  By the beginning of the 2nd century BC, drama was firmly established in Rome.

The Roman comedies that have survived are all based on Greek subjects  and come from two dramatists: Titus Maccius Plautus  and Publius Terentius.

The Roman dramatists took inspiration from Greek plays but they abolished the role of the chorus in dividing the drama into episodes and introduced musical accompaniment to its dialogue.  Plautus, the more popular of the two, wrote between 205 and 184 BC and twenty of his comedies survive. His farces are best known; he was admired for the wit of his dialogue and his use of a variety of poetic meters.

No early Roman tragedy survives.Historians know of three early tragedians – Quintus Ennius, Marcus Pacuvius and Lucius Accius. From the time of the empire, the work of two tragedians survives. One is an unknown author, while the other is the Stoic philosopher Seneca.

Nine of Seneca’s tragedies survive, all of which are tragedies adapted from Greek originals, his Phaedra, for example, was based on Euripides’ Hippolytus.

Notable Roman Playwrights

Livius Andronicus, a Greek slave taken to Rome in 240 BCE, who wrote plays based on Greek theatre. Rome’s first playwright.

Plautus, 3rd century BC comedic playwright and writer of Miles Gloriosus, Pseudolus, and Menaechmi.

Terence, who wrote between 170 and 160 BC.

Gaius Maecenas Melissus, 1st century playwright of a “comedy of manners”

Seneca, 1st century dramatist most famous for Roman adaptations of ancient Greek plays like Medea and Phaedra.

Horace – (65-8 B.C.) – a theoretician – Ars Poetica (The Art of Poetry)