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GREEK MIMES

Mime term applied indiscriminatelyboth to scripts and performers

Short playlets, mimetic dance,

imitation of animals, singing,acrobatics and so on

Probably the first professional

entertainers Short mime playlets originated in

Megara in 6th century B.C.

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ROMAN

THEATREAND DRAMA

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753 B.C. Rome was founded

4th century began to expand

265 B.C. controlled the Italian

Peninsula

Between 270 & 240 B.C. took

several Greek territories

240 B.C. beginning of Roman

theatre

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ETRUSCAN ANTECEDENTS

Etruria dominant influence onRoman theatrical activities

Rome inherited many features

of its religious festivals

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THE ROMAN CONTEXT

146 B.C Rome had conqueredGreece

Two phases of Romes history:

1. The Republicrepublican virtues

2. The Empire regular dramas were

abandoned

Romans placed more emphasis on theform as on the substance of religious

ceremonies

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ROMAN FESTIVALS

Ludi official religious festivals

Ludi Romani oldest of the official

festivals

Instauratio repetition of Ludi Romani

Ludi Plebeii seven times in one year

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DRAMA UNDER THE ROMANS

Roman literature began with LiviusAndronicus

Gnaeus Naevius first native-born

dramatist Plautus & Terence authors of the

only surviving Roman comedies

Titus Maccius Plautus first importantsuccessor to Andronicus and Naevius

Publius Terentius Afer does not lie in intrigue

but character and the double plots

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Fabula Palliata comedy based onGreek originals

Fabula Togata comedy based on

Roman materials Lucius Annaeus Seneca famous for

his works on rhetoric and philosophy

1. Five-act form was standard 2. Elaborate speeches

3. Interest on morality

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4. Scenes of violence and horror

5. Pre occupation with magic, death and

interpretation of human and superhuman

worlds 6. Creation of characters

Technical devices were taken over by

later authors

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Fabulae Atellanae 300 400 lines

Subject matters: cheating, gluttony,

fighting or sexual exploits

4 stock characters:1. Bucco

2.Papus

3. Maccus

4. Dossenus

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Fabula Riciniata (mime)

Republic:

Ludi Florales festival honoring one of the

fertility goddesses Empire:

Dramatic form, usually short but elaborate and

complex

Helioglabalus ordered sexual acts to beperformed realistically

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Fabula Saltica (Pantomime)

Popular story telling dance

Plots more usually taken from mythology

or historyAction was accompanied by a chorus or

orchestra

Pylades and Bathyllus introducedpantomime to Rome