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 A buskin is a knee- or calf-length boot made of leather or cloth, enclosed by material, and laced, from above the toes to the top of the boot, and open across the toes. A high-heeled version was worn by Athenian tragic actors (to make them loo ...

'') 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 Lucius Livius Andronicus (; el, Λούκιος Λίβιος Ανδρόνικος; c. 284 – c. 204 BC) was a Greco-Roman dramatist and epic poet of the Old Latin period during the Roman Republic. He began as an educator in the service of a n ...

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. ...

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 Calabr ...

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 posit ...

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 Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace, with whom ...

's ''Medea'' also did not survive.

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 {{AncientRome-stub

See also

Sources