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 Titus Quinctius Atta (died 77 BC) was a Roman comedy writer, and, like Titinius Titinius was an ancient Roman soldier. He was a centurion in the army of Gaius Cassius Longinus at the battle of Phillipi. After the battle was over, he was sent by Cas ...

are known to have written ''fabulas togatas''. It is also treated as an expression that functioned as the overall description of all Roman types of drama in accordance with a distinction between Roman ''

toga The toga (, ), a distinctive garment of ancient Rome, was a roughly semicircular cloth, between in length, draped over the shoulders and around the body. It was usually woven from white wool, and was worn over a tunic. In Roman historical tra ...

'' and ''

pallium The pallium (derived from the Roman ''pallium'' or ''palla'', a woolen cloak; : ''pallia'') is an ecclesiastical vestment in the Catholic Church, originally peculiar to the pope, but for many centuries bestowed by the Holy See upon metropol ...

''. There are recorded sources that cite how this drama could be obscene and moralistic. By mid-second century BC the ''fabula togata'' had become one of the two types of drama that constituted a bifurcated Roman comedy along with ''

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 ...

''. The ''fabula togata'' was distinguished from the ''palliata'' primarily by its use of Roman or Italian characters, transferring the comic situations of the bourgeois ''palliata'' to the lower-class citizens of the country towns of Italy. The ''palliata'' was based on originals of Greek

New Comedy Ancient Greek comedy was one of the final three principal dramatic forms in the theatre of classical Greece (the others being tragedy and the satyr play). Athenian comedy is conventionally divided into three periods: Old Comedy, Middle Comedy, an ...

, tragedies from Attic sources as well as the grand dramatization of Rome's past. In the ''togata'' the typical clothing worn by the all male actors was the ''toga'', a typically Roman dress, while the ''palliata'' took its name from the ''pallium''. There is no existing complete ''fabula togata'' but there are surviving fragments that indicate aspects of the creative practice.

References

* Peter Lebrecht Schmidt "Togata" in: ''Brill's New Pauly'', Antiquity volumes edited by: Hubert Cancik and Helmuth Schneider. Consulted online on 21 July 2017 Comedy Latin-language literature Ancient Roman theatre History of theatre {{AncientRome-stub

See also

References