6/3/07 - Classical LIterature - New Comedy in Rome

Invention of the protatic character. In the Eunuch, 560-578, Antipho asks useless questions about what Chaerea is going to say. So Antipho has a purely technical role. Such characters are mainly found at the beginning of the play in order to help the audience grasp the background/setting. Also, such dialogue is more dynamic than having a long speech and losing the attention of the audience. Romans tended to take long Greek speeches and break them up in this way. That way, the information was repeated and given slowly, so that it was easier for audiences to pick up.

The figure of the slave was more important in Roman comedy than in Greek drama. For example, in the Eunuchus, 923-33, a slave talks down on a free woman, and 934-40, the slave gives a moral judgement, so exercising influence.

Slaves were not the same as citizens, although endowed with speech. Terence does not represent slaves in this way. Some citizens who owned slaves were beginning to realise that the slaves worked better if they were treated in a friendly way, as equals to their masters, and if they thought that they were the ones making the suggestions.

In the Eunuchus, notice how Parmeno, a slave, sneers at Gnatho, a free man. There is often transcendence between slaves and free men in Roman comedy. Why do Romans focus more on slaves than the Greeks? Plautus was born 'Titus Maccus Plotus' (dog-eared). He was born in Italy and moved to Rome to gain citizenship. Terence was born in North Africa, a slave country. He translated Greek plays into Latin for money, and probably finished six plays. Terence allowed slaves to become prominent after Greece was defeated permanently.

The Roman acting companies hired a group of actors with which they stuck. Therefore, they could choose plays that were most suited to their actors, or plays which the actors preferred to play. If the play was successful, they would turn to the same writer again, so the audience decided what was successful. Members of the jury would give the audience what they wanted in the hope of being elected to a higher post in the future.