A ''fabula crepidata'' or ''fabula cothurnata'' is a Latin tragedy with Greek subjects. The genre probably originated in adaptations of
Greek tragedy
Greek tragedy is a form of theatre from Ancient Greece and Greek inhabited Anatolia. It reached its most significant form in Athens in the 5th century BC, the works of which are sometimes called Attic tragedy.
Greek tragedy is widely believed t ...
(hence the names, coming from ''crepida'' = ''sandal'' and ''
cothurnus'') beginning in the early third century BC. Only nine have survived intact, all by
Seneca
Seneca may refer to:
People and language
* Seneca (name), a list of people with either the given name or surname
* Seneca people, one of the six Iroquois tribes of North America
** Seneca language, the language of the Seneca people
Places Extrat ...
. Of the plays written by
Lucius Livius Andronicus,
Gnaeus Naevius
Gnaeus Naevius (; c. 270 – c. 201 BC) was a Roman epic poet and dramatist of the Old Latin period. He had a notable literary career at Rome until his satiric comments delivered in comedy angered the Metellus family, one of whom was consul. A ...
,
Quintus Ennius
Quintus Ennius (; c. 239 – c. 169 BC) was a writer and poet who lived during the Roman Republic. He is often considered the father of Roman poetry. He was born in the small town of Rudiae, located near modern Lecce, Apulia, (Ancient Calabria, ...
,
Marcus Pacuvius
Marcus Pacuvius (; 220 – c. 130 BC) was an ancient Roman tragic poet. He is regarded as the greatest of their tragedians prior to Lucius Accius.
Biography
He was the nephew and pupil of Ennius, by whom Roman tragedy was first raised to a positi ...
,
Lucius Accius
Lucius Accius (; 170 – c. 86 BC), or Lucius Attius, was a Roman tragic poet and literary scholar. Accius was born in 170 BC at Pisaurum, a town founded in the Ager Gallicus in 184 BC. He was the son of a freedman and a freedwoman, probably from ...
, and others, only titles, small fragments, and occasionally brief summaries are left.
Ovid
Pūblius Ovidius Nāsō (; 20 March 43 BC – 17/18 AD), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace, with whom he is often ranked as one of the th ...
's ''Medea'' also did not survive.
See also
*''
Fabula atellana''
*''
Fabula palliata
''Fabula palliata'' is a genre of Roman drama that consists largely of Romanized versions of Greek plays.''OCD'', sv. palliata The name ''palliata'' comes from ''pallium'', the Latin word for a Greek-style cloak. It is possible that the term ''fa ...
''
*''
Fabula praetexta''
*''
Fabula saltata''
*''
Fabula togata
A ''fabula togata'' is a Latin comedy in a Roman setting, in existence since at least the second century BC. Lucius Afranius and Titus Quinctius Atta are known to have written ''fabulas togatas''. It is also treated as an expression that functione ...
''
*
Theatre of ancient Rome
The architectural form of theatre in Rome has been linked to later, more well-known examples from the 1st century BC to the 3rd Century AD. The theatre of ancient Rome referred to as a period of time in which theatrical practice and performance t ...
Sources
* Bernhard Zimmermann and Thomas Baier "Tragedy" in: ''Brill's New Pauly'', Antiquity volumes edited by: Hubert Cancik and Helmuth Schneider. Consulted online on 21 July 2017
Tragedies (dramas)
Latin-language literature
Ancient Roman theatre
History of theatre
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