|
Terence
Publius Terentius Afer (; – ), better known in English as Terence (), was a playwright during the Roman Republic. He was the author of six Roman comedy, comedies based on Greek comedy, Greek originals by Menander or Apollodorus of Carystus. All six of Terence's plays survive complete and were originally produced between 166–160 BC. According to ancient authors, Terence was born in Carthage and was brought to Rome as a slave, where he gained an education and his freedom; around the age of 25, Terence is said to have made a voyage to the east in search of inspiration for his plays, where he died either of disease in Greece, or by shipwreck on the return voyage. However, Terence's traditional biography is often thought to consist of speculation by ancient scholars who lived too long after Terence to have access to reliable facts about his life. Terence's plays quickly became standard school texts. He ultimately secured a place as one of the four authors taught to all grammar p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aelius Donatus
Aelius Donatus (; fl. mid-fourth century AD) was a Roman grammarian and teacher of rhetoric. He once taught Jerome, an early Christian Church father who is most known for his translation of the Bible into Latin, known as the Latin Vulgate. Newer revisions of the Vulgate are still in common use by the Catholic Church. Works He was the author of a number of professional works, of which several are extant: *Ars maior – A commentary on Latin grammar. * Ars minor – A commentary on parts of Latin Speech. * Commentvm Terenti, Publii Terentii Comoediae Sex with preface de tragoedia et comoedia (Commentary on Terence, Six Comedies of Terence with the preface About Tragedies and Comedies) – A commentary on the playwright Terence and all six of his plays, probably compiled from other commentaries. The preface is a commentary on the "proper" structures of Tragedies and Comedies by Donatus titled, "About Comedies and Tragedies." It has never been translated to English as parts are ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lucius Ambivius Turpio
Lucius Ambivius Turpio (often referred to simply as "Turpio") was an actor, stage manager, patron, promoter and entrepreneur in ancient Rome around the time of the playwright Terence Publius Terentius Afer (; – ), better known in English as Terence (), was a playwright during the Roman Republic. He was the author of six Roman comedy, comedies based on Greek comedy, Greek originals by Menander or Apollodorus of Carystus. A ..., that is, around the 2nd century BC. Formerly working with the playwright Caecilius Statius, and already known as a promoter of contemporary comic writers, Turpio moved on to serve as the producer and lead actor in most if not all of Terence's plays. Career In some ways, Turpio served as Terence's metatheatrical mouthpiece on stage. In several of his plays Terence began with a prologue to the audience explaining his method of playwriting, ostensibly spoken by an actor in a manner suggesting a close relationship with the playwright. In at least two pl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roman Comedy
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 a period of time in which theatrical practice and performance took place in Rome. The tradition has been linked back even further to the 4th century BC, following the state’s transition from monarchy to republic. Theatre during this era is generally separated into genres of tragedy and comedy, which are represented by a particular style of architecture and stage play, and conveyed to an audience purely as a form of entertainment and control. When it came to the audience, Romans favored entertainment and performance over tragedy and drama, displaying a more modern form of theatre that is still used in contemporary times. 'Spectacle' became an essential part of an everyday Romans expectations when it came to theatre. Some works by Plautus, Terence, and Seneca the Younger that survive to this day, highlig ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Volcacius Sedigitus
Volcacius Sedigitus () (alternative spelling Volcatius) was the ''titulus'' of a Roman literary critic who flourished around 100 , noted for his ranking of those he considered the best Latin comics. Nothing is known about Sedigitus beyond that Pliny calls him ''illustrem in poetica'' and states that he got his cognomen because he was born with six fingers (Latin ''sex digitī'') on each hand. This rare state, known as ''polydactyly'', is caused by a dominant gene. The Romans did not avoid openly referencing blemishes and personal infirmities in the names they gave to public figures. (See ''Roman naming conventions''.) His origin may have been lowly or from outside the Roman Empire. His ''nomen gentilicium'', "Volcacius", may be derived from the Volcae, a Celtic people. From his work ''Dē Poētīs'' Aulus Gellius' ''Noctēs Atticae'' [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Menander
Menander (; ; c. 342/341 – c. 290 BC) was a Greek scriptwriter and the best-known representative of Athenian Ancient Greek comedy, New Comedy. He wrote 108 comedies and took the prize at the Lenaia festival eight times. His record at the City Dionysia is unknown. He was one of the most popular writers and most highly admired poets in antiquity, but his work was considered lost before the early Middle Ages. It now survives only in Latin-language adaptations by Terence and Plautus and, in the original Greek, in highly fragmentary form, most of which were discovered on papyrus in Egyptian tombs during the early to mid-20th-century. In the 1950s, to the great excitement of Classicists, it was announced that a single play by Menander, ''Dyskolos'', had finally been rediscovered in the Bodmer Papyri intact enough to be performed. Life and work Menander was the son of well-to-do parents; his father Diopeithes is identified by some with the Athenian general and governor of the Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fabula Palliata
''Fabula palliata'' is a genre of Theatre of ancient Rome, Roman drama that consists largely of Romanized versions of Theatre of ancient Greece, Greek plays.''OCD'', sv. palliata The name ''palliata'' comes from ''Pallium (Roman cloak), pallium'', the Latin word for a Greek-style cloak (''himation''). It is possible that the term ''fabula palliata'' indicates that the actors who performed wore such cloaks. Another possibility is that the ''fabula'' itself is metaphorically "cloaked" in a Greek style.''OCD'', sv palliata As in all Roman drama, the actors wore masks that easily identified which of the stock characters they represented. Style The only complete, extant ''fabulae palliatae'' are the Roman comedy, comedies of Terence and Plautus. Plautus introduced Roman manners and customs to the plays and filled the plays with boisterous humour and musical performances, while Terence kept his plays close to their Greek originals and sometimes combined two plays into one (''contaminati ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Latin
Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area around Rome, Italy. Through the expansion of the Roman Republic, it became the dominant language in the Italian Peninsula and subsequently throughout the Roman Empire. It has greatly influenced many languages, Latin influence in English, including English, having contributed List of Latin words with English derivatives, many words to the English lexicon, particularly after the Christianity in Anglo-Saxon England, Christianization of the Anglo-Saxons and the Norman Conquest. Latin Root (linguistics), roots appear frequently in the technical vocabulary used by fields such as theology, List of Latin and Greek words commonly used in systematic names, the sciences, List of medical roots, suffixes and prefixes, medicine, and List of Latin legal terms ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Greek 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. Greek comedy was distinguished from tragedy by its happy endings and use of comically exaggerated character archetypes, the latter feature being the origin of the modern concept of the comedy. Athenian comedy is conventionally divided into three periods; Old Comedy survives today largely in the form of the eleven extant plays of Aristophanes; Middle Comedy is largely lost and preserved only in relatively short fragments by authors such as Athenaeus of Naucratis; New Comedy is known primarily from the substantial papyrus fragments of Menander. A burlesque dramatic form that blended tragic and comic elements, known as phlyax play or hilarotragedy, developed in the Greek colonies of Magna Graecia by the late 4th century BC. The philosopher Aristotle wrote in his '' Poetics'' (c. 335 BC) that comedy is a representation of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Apollodorus Of Carystus
Apollodorus of Carystus () in Euboea, was one of the most important writers of the Attic New Comedy, who flourished in Athens between 300 and 260 B.C. He is to be distinguished from the older Apollodorus of Gela (342—290), a contemporary of Menander who was also a writer of New Comedy. He wrote 47 comedies and obtained the prize five times. Terence's '' Hecyra'' and '' Phormio'' were adapted from the ''Hekyra'' and ''Epidikazomenos'' of Apollodorus. Endnote: Fragments in Koch, ''Comicorum Atticorum Fragmenta'', ii. (1884); see also Meineke, ''Historia Critica Comicorum Graecorum'' (1839). Surviving titles and fragments *''Amphiareus'' ("Amphiaraus") *''Anteuergeton'' ("Man Who Returns a Kindness") *''Apokarterountes'' ("People Starving Themselves to Death") *''Apoleipousa'' ("The Woman Who Leaves") *''Grammateidiopoios'' ("Maker of Writing Tablets") *''Diabolos'' ("The Accuser") *''Hekyra'' ("The Mother-In-Law") *''Ennea'' ("Nine") *''Epidikazomenos'' ("The Claimant") *'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ludi Romani
The ''Ludi Romani'' ("Roman Games"; see '' ludi'') was a religious festival in ancient Rome held annually, starting in 366 BC, from September 12 to September 14. In the 1st century BC, an extra day was added in honor of the deified Julius Caesar on 4 September and extended to September 19. The festival first introduced drama to Rome based on Greek drama. Origins These games—the chief Roman festival—were held in honor of Jupiter, and are said to have been established by Tarquinius Priscus on the occasion of his conquest of the Latin town of Apiolae. However, Dionysius of Halicarnassus and Cicero date them to the Roman victory over the Latins at Lake Regillus during the early Republic, ca. 496 BC. The games were originally organized by the consuls and later by the curule aediles. At first they lasted only a day. A second day was added on the expulsion of the kings in 509 BC, and a third after the first secession of the plebs in 494 BC. From 191 to 171 BC they lasted ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Suetonius
Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus (), commonly referred to as Suetonius ( ; – after AD 122), was a Roman historian who wrote during the early Imperial era of the Roman Empire. His most important surviving work is ''De vita Caesarum'', commonly known in English as '' The Twelve Caesars'', a set of biographies of 12 successive Roman rulers from Julius Caesar to Domitian. Other works by Suetonius concerned the daily life of Rome, politics, oratory, and the lives of famous writers, including poets, historians, and grammarians. A few of these books have partially survived, but many have been lost. Life Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus was probably born about AD 69, a date deduced from his remarks describing himself as a "young man" 20 years after Nero's death. His place of birth is disputed, but most scholars place it in Hippo Regius, a small north African town in Numidia, in modern-day Algeria. It is certain that Suetonius came from a family of moderate social position, that his fat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ancient Roman Freedmen
Freedmen in ancient Rome existed as a distinct social class ''(liberti'' or ''libertini)'', with former slaves granted freedom and rights through the legal process of manumission. The Slavery in ancient Rome, Roman practice of slavery utilized slaves for both production and domestic labour, overseen by their wealthy masters. Urban and domestic slaves especially could achieve high levels of education, acting as agents and representatives of their masters' affairs and finances. Within Roman law there was a set of practices for freeing trusted slaves, granting them a limited form of Roman citizenship or Latin rights. These freed slaves were known in Latin as ''liberti'' (Freedman, freedmen), and formed a class set apart from freeborn Romans. While freedmen were barred from some forms of social mobility in Roman society, many achieved high levels of wealth and status. ''Liberti'' were an important part of the "most economically active and innovative entrepreneurial class" in the Roman E ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
