Lucius Afranius was an

ancient Roman In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–509 BC ...

comic poet, who lived at the beginning of the 1st century BC.

Life

Afranius' comedies described Roman scenes and manners (the genre called ''comoediae togatae'') and the subjects were mostly taken from the life of the lower classes (''comoediae tabernariae''). They were considered by some ancients to be frequently polluted with disgraceful amours, which, according to

Quintilian Marcus Fabius Quintilianus (; 35 – 100 AD) was a Roman educator and rhetorician from Hispania, widely referred to in medieval schools of rhetoric and in Renaissance writing. In English translation, he is usually referred to as Quintilia ...

, were only a representation of the conduct of Afranius. He depicted, however, Roman life with such accuracy that he is classed with

Menander Menander (; grc-gre, Μένανδρος ''Menandros''; c. 342/41 – c. 290 BC) was a Greek dramatist and the best-known representative of Athenian New Comedy. He wrote 108 comedies and took the prize at the Lenaia festival eight times. His rec ...

, from whom indeed he borrowed largely. He imitated the style of Gaius Titius, and his language is praised by

Cicero Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the estab ...

. His comedies are spoken of in the highest terms by the ancient writers, and under the

Empire An empire is a "political unit" made up of several territories and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the empire (sometimes referred to as the metropole) ex ...

they not only continued to be read, but were even acted, of which an example occurs in the time of

Nero Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus ( ; born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus; 15 December AD 37 – 9 June AD 68), was the fifth Roman emperor and final emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, reigning from AD 54 un ...

. They seem to have been well known even at the latter end of the 4th century AD.

Quintilian's judgement

The Spanish-Roman teacher of rhetoric

wrote of Afranius's plays: :''Togātīs excellit Afrānius: utinam non inquināsset argūmenta puerōrum foedīs amōribus, mōrēs suōs fassus.'' :("Afranius excelled in Roman-style comedies: if only he hadn't polluted his plots with unseemly sexual affairs with boys, confessing his own habits.") Such is the generally accepted interpretation of this sentence. An alternative view is proposed by Welsh (2010),Welsh, Jarrett T. (2010)
"Quintilian's Judgement of Afranius"
''The Classical Quarterly'', New Series, Vol. 60, No. 1 (May 2010), pp. 118-126.) who, noting that there is no trace of pederasty or any lewdness in any of the quoted fragments of Afranius, proposed to translate the sentence "if only he hadn't polluted his plots with disreputable love affairs (conducted) by boys", something which Quintilian perhaps thought unsuited to the moralising tone of Roman comedies. A problem with this interpretation, as Welsh himself admits, is that in Roman literature the word ''pueri'' is usually used for the boys who are object of love affairs, not the young men who conduct them.

Surviving titles and fragments

Afranius wrote many comedies. The titles of forty-two of his plays are still preserved, along with associated fragments and quotations:

References

Attribution

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Afranius, Lucius 1st-century BC people 1st-century BC Roman poets

Lucius Lucius ( el, Λούκιος ''Loukios''; ett, Luvcie) is a male given name derived from ''Lucius'' (abbreviated ''L.''), one of the small group of common Latin forenames (''praenomina'') found in the culture of ancient Rome. Lucius derives from L ...

Golden Age Latin writers Humorous poets Roman-era poets Year of birth unknown Year of death unknown