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Many of the surviving roman comedies are fabula palliata  which are greek plays that have been revised and changed by the romans

They included "stock characters" who would be easily recognizable tropes seen in the comedies. They included:

adulescens- A young, rich, hero who is not very brave, and in love. often complains about his life and has other people do things for him

senex- an older man sometimes the father of the adulescens who is either too strict or two soft on his son. embarrasses his family and slaves and is in love with the same girl as his son is.

leno- the brothel owner. The love interest of the adulescens may be owned by the leno and work at his brothel, so that the adulescens is often forced to deal with him. the leno is completely immortal and cares only about money

servi (slaves) take up about half of the cast and often have the most monologues. They are not the toilers typical of a real Roman home. The servus callidus or clever slave is always talkative, but his other traits vary. Most of the time he is loyal, more so to the adulescens than the senex. He brings tricks and comedy to the play, and tends to drive the plot. He is often the one who finds the truth out at the end of the play.

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A Roman Theatre Frozen in Time I The Great Courses

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The shimmering turquoise waters and lost worlds of the Aegean await you. Grab your travel hat and join us for a unique cultural journey to the dramatic landscapes of Greece and Turkey-to dazzling ancient cities, majestic empires, and magical treasures of history. This is a land of gods and heroes.

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A funny thing happened on the way to the forum

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A funny thing happened on the way to the forum

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A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum 1966 Comedy | Musical Movies

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Pseudolus is the laziest slave in Rome and has but one wish, to purchase his freedom. When his master and mistress leave for the day he finds out that the young master has fallen in love with a virgin in the house of Lycus, a slave dealer specializing in beautiful women.

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In the 4th century C.E., it was clear that the Roman empire was beginning to fall apart. In 330, the emperor Constantine established two capitols. Rome in the west and Constantinople in the east.
The declining of Roman theatre coincided with the downfall of the western empire. Yet the fall of Rome is not the only explanation of the deterioration of its theatre.

Theatre itself became less of an art form and more of an entertainment, to the point where distinguishing between theatrical offerings and circuses, or between gladiatorial contests and pantomimes often became difficult.

With the rise of Christianity the church was opposed to theatre. Early Christians saw a connection between theatre and Pagan religions, and the church fathers argued that by the sexual content of Roman entertainments and by their frequent satirical attacks on Christianity. As a result, the church issued various edicts condemning theatre and its participants.

Another important reason was the disintegration of Roman civilization. The invaders from the North plundered the cities of the Roman empire, and after a time no large centers of cultures remained. Through time, the plays of the Greek and Roman dramatist were lost or forgotten.

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Performance with theatrical elements: Dancing, Pantomime, Costumes and Impersonation

Performances not theatre related but are still viewed as such: Juggling, Acrobatics, Trained Animals

Medieval period in Europe – Organized theatre disappeared, traveling circus or troupe featuring juggling, dancing and mime kept the notion of performance in front of an audience alive.

In the elizabethan era, theatre was a popular form of entertainment but so was bull and bear baiting – the act of setting attack dogs loose on bears and bulls, which often took place in the same theatrical space.

Atellan farce – a Roman theatrical comedy show around 300 BCE, more popular around the 3rd century was Mime, like Greek mime, it included juggling, acrobatics, song and dance. Mimes performed courtyard around town or in the town square.

Even though Mime troupes were a big hit, they didn’t last long and were looked down upon for this and for allowing women to perform as well.

Many forms of the modern circus connect to what the Romans did such as chariot racing (taking place in the Circus Maximus a building specially constructed for racing), hand-to-hand combat, gymnastics and horse-back riding – around 7th century BCE

And underground arena – where Christians were sacrificed to hungry lions

Gladiators combated each other during festivals – close to 2nd century BCE, some like wrestling we make-believe or scripted fights and other times they were battles to the death.

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Theatre Buildings and Scenic Elements

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Theatre Buildings and Scenic Elements

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To make theatre available to large numbers of people, the Romans built many impressive theatres throughout the empire. They redesigned the Greek amphitheater, but ironically, did not construct a permeate theatre, the theatre of Pompey, until 55 B.C.E; thus, during the lifetime of Plautus and Terence- the best playwrights Rome produced- there were no permeate spaces for presenting their works.

Roman theatres had the same three units found in Greek buildings: the cavea, the Orchestra, and the Scaena. The Roman structures however, were different from those of classical Greece. The Romans had developed the arch and other engineering techniques that allowed flexibility in construction, and they put this knowledge to good use in building theatres. Roman theatres were usually not built into hillsides but were free standing structures with a tiered audience section connected to the scene house. The Cavea, the audience seating area, was often larger than the Greek theatron; some Roman theaters could hold up to 25,000 spectators.

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Festivals, including theatrical events were controlled by a government official responsible for finding and hiring an acting troupe. The official and the dominus (or lead actor) would talk to fix a price, buy costumes and scripts and hire musicians.

Actors were called Historiones and Roman troupes had about 6 actors per group, ignoring the Greek’s 3-actor rule of which even Quintus was a fan of. Due to the sheer size of a theatrical stage actors were used to performing much bigger physcial actions on stage and delivered so that the whole house could clearly hear each line. However due to this, no one would deliver a delicate line quietly or perhaps didn’t even know what that meant, nor did they have use for facial expressions since masks covered their whole head.

Opposite of today, Romans loved stock characters, that is actors who only played a single type of role which is sort of frowned upon in today’s theatrical and film world.

Not unlike today some actors (mainly movie stars in today’s world) in Roman times were quite wealthy despite most actors most likely being slaves or bought into the troupe or simply commoners. Presumably the Dominus was likely not a slave and also the only one who was allowed to retain any money the troupe made. By the time of his death Claudius Aesop’s worth was equivalent to $1,000,000, which was divided among those who knew him including Quintus and when he died his worth was well over $1,000,000.

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Roman Tragedy did not prosper through out the golden age of Roman theatre.

References to only a few Roman tragic playwrights survived. They included Quintus Ennius, Marcus Pacuvius, and Lucius Accius. Their work appears to have been well regarded when it first appeared, but since no plays survive, it maybe assumed that they fell out of favor. Many scholars believe that tragedy's that were written after the first century B.C.E were not meant for large public performance, because Roman society became much more interested in spectacular and popular entertainments.

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1 – Never combine Tragedy with Comedy

2 – Stories should have 5 acts

3 – only 3 speaking characters should appear on stage

4 – Gods should not show up unless as an absolute necessity

5 – Chorus should push the story onwards, lift the spirits, and to give good advice to the characters

6 – (more of his opinion, less a rule) drama should be to please and educate a crowd – an opinion not retained by Aristotle but Renaissance critics agreed it should be a rule.

Decorum – one of the last rules or concerns of Quintus; Keep all language and actions befitting to any character being portrayed i.e. a Child doesn’t curse, a woman does not fight, a King does not ask twice.

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Born 65 BCE until 8 BCE in an Italian town of Venisula, once belonging to the Greeks, was the son of a Freed Slave, Quintus Hortius Flaccus or Horace, was a poet and friend to many literary playwrights of the early Roman empire. Was once a soldier who fought in a civil war following the death of Julius Caser, upon returning to Rome after being pardoned by the new emperor, he began a life of writing. Of these writings he is known for his lyric poetry including; the Satires, Epodes and The Art of Poetry.

Because the emperor at the time like literary work and liked Quintus’s work, he was bestowed a farm as such he didn’t have to worry about money troubles and could focus most of his attention towards writing. His work made him the leading poet in Rome until death.

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Terence (Publius Terentius Afer)

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Terence (Publius Terentius Afer)

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After Plautus, the most important and influential Roman comic writers was Terence. Born and raised into the life of a slave, Terentius Lucanus, a Roman senator, brought Terence to Rome and educated him. Impressed by his ability's, Terentius freed Terence to become a writer.

Terence wrote 6 plays all of which survived…

Andria (The Girl from Andros)

Hecyra (The mother-in-Law)

Heauton Timorumenous (The Self Tormentor)

Phormio

Eunchus

Adelphone

Whereas Plautus’s plays were robust and broadly entertaining, Terence stressed characterization, subtlety of expression, and elegant language. Like Plautus, Terence based most of his work on Greek models. He was accused for plagiarizing materials from Greek  comedies and Terence did not deny it. He even said that “meant to do it again.” Reworking Greek plays was a common practice among Roman authors. So It is likely that this criticism of Terence was motivated by other reasons.

His plots are more carefully contrasted than those of Plautus; and he often used a double plot, placing two characters in similar romantic situations and examining their different reactions. Though his plays were admired by his friends peers, the populace preferred more lively entertainments. Terence  had to present his play The Mother-in-Law three times before the audience to sit through  the whole performance.

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Born 254 – 184 BCE in Umbria, Titus Maccius Plautus, would move to Rome and become the most popular comic write of the third and second century BCE. His best known work is The Menaechmi – a play of mistaken identity over a pair of twins.

Because of his status as the best comic, more than a hundred plays were thought to be written by him however only about 45 turned out to be actually written by him. About 20 or so fragments of his plays survived and have been used by Shakespeare, Ben-Johnson and Moliere.

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Great version of Menaechmus for my Final Latin Project.

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While there were comedies that dealt with Roman issues, known as Fabula togata, none of these plays survive; nor were very popular. The comedies that did survive called the fabula palliata are all based on models and subjects.

The changes that Roman comic writers made in a play of their predecessors included…

The elimination of the chorus

The addition of musical accompaniment to much of the dialogue

An emphasis on eavesdropping, which led to frequent misunderstandings and complications

The setting of the action, which takes place on a street

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The Development of Roman Theatre

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The Development of Roman Theatre

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Whereas Greece had been noted for creativity and imagination in art, architecture and philosophy, Rome came to be known for mastery of more practical arts; law, engineering and military conquest.

And just as the achievements of Rome as a civilization were more down to earth than those of Greece, so to in theatre. Instead of concerning on high-minded tragedy, Roman theatre focused on comedy and other popular entertainments

Taking off from Greek new comedy, the Romans developed a form of domestic farce that was the prototype of this kind of entertainment and has continued to have an influence straight through to today’s situation comedy’s on television.

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Brief History of the Roman Republic and Empire

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Brief History of the Roman Republic and Empire

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-Rome was founded after the Trojans lost the war of Troy around 750 B.C and over 200 years was ruled by a series of kings from its northern neighbor, Etruria.

-Their presumed leader according to myth was the son of Anchises (The King of Troy) and Trojan war hero, Aeneas.

-Around 500 B.C. the kings were overthrown and a republic was established, which was to last nearly 500 years.

-The Romans were great engineers and and architects developing aqueducts and roadways.

-Religion was of the upmost importance in Roman history. The Romans worshiped gods who were counterparts of the Greeks deities (Such as Jupiter for Zeus, Venus for Aphrodite, and Mars for Ares)

-They continually add and basically borrowed gods from other cultures and worshipped them all the same. The Romans also staged religious festivals that incorporated elements of theatre.