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The Roman Theater: Breeder of CosmopolitesHazel M. Toliver aa Lindenwood CollegePublished online: 09 Jul 2010.

To cite this article: Hazel M. Toliver (1958) The Roman Theater: Breeder of Cosmopolites, Kentucky Foreign LanguageQuarterly, 5:3, 143-149, DOI: 10.1080/00230332.1958.9927778

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THE ROMAN THEATER: BREEDER O F COSMOPOLITES

By Hazel M. Toliver, Lindenwood College

There probably would be no argument about the fact that the theater has generally exerted a rather extensive influence wherever and whenever it has been popular. We can assume that the theater in ancient Rome was no excep- tion and that many ideas and attitudes were inspired or spread among the Ro.- mans by the stage. theater in helping the rather provincial early Roman to become, over the cen- turies, more cosmopolitan in his outlook. In connection with this discussion we a r e going to think of a cosmopolite as a person who, though he may never have been out of his native city, has learned so much about the ideas and cus- toms of other peoples that his own provincialism and narrow prejudices have 1 a r gely di s app ear ed .

The purpose of this paper is to consider the role of the

There seems no doubt that the theater at Rome reached many people. Its popularity is attested time and again by such widely different writers as Cicero, Ovid, Seneca, Pliny the Elder, Martial, Tacitus, Juvenal, Suetonius, and Augustine. admitted and what kinds of plays appealed to the various classes, but there is little doubt that all social classes and both sexes were allowed to attend the theater with the possible exception, in some periods, of. slaves. It is known, too, that the number of plays given in Rome increased as the number of fes- tival days and extraordinary occasions increased. must, therefore, have had rather frequent opportunities of attending the thea- te r . Further, since there were comparatively few agencies which dissemi- nated information, the theater may very well have exerted a proportionately larger influence in Rome than it does today when we have radio, television, movies, public lectures, churches, clubs, and learned associations.

Modern writers have argued about what social classes were

A majority of the citizens

Because the theater was so popular among the Romans, let us consider what features would especially tend to increase the cosmopolitanism of the spectators. In this attempt we should remember that in estimating the influ- ence of the Roman theater one should never consider the play alone. We have only to read certain comments in the plays of Plautus and Terence and some of the remarks made by nunerous non-dramatic writers to know that the spec- tator was eagerly interested in everything and everybody in the theater and showed his interest and curiosity in the most open and audible manner. At the theater the spectator learned much, for example, about politics. By the time of Cicero and Caesar Roman politics had in effect become world politics because Rome was ruling the whole Mediterranean area. Many foreign dig- nitaries attended the theater i n Rome as state guests, and the Roman spec- tators took great interest in these visitors whether they came from a great

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nation o r a small t r ibe. German t r ibe who observed other foreigners sitting in the senatorial rows and who, upon being told that this was a compliment to nations distinguished for their courage and friendship to Rome, promptly moved into the senatorial sec- tion themselves, saying that no people ranked above the Germans in courage o r loyalty. The Roman audience, Tacitus says, took this action i n good part and concluded that it showed a primitive impetuosity and an admirable spir i t of r ivalry characterist ic of the Germans.

Tacitus (Ann. 13, 54) te l ls a story of envoys f rom a -

It i s interesting to note from many references in Latin l i terature that, besides disseminating information about public affairs at home and abroad, the theater also molded public attitudes. least as Cicero 's t ime was no longer strictly provincial in his outlook. Roman soldiers and t r ade r s were always returning from regions throughout the known world, and even the stay-at-home citizen must have heard much about strange places and peoples. In the theater, however, he had perhaps his best oppor- tunity to l ea rn how people in general were thinking about all the complicated problems associated with world dominance. There he talked with other citi- zens; he saw prominent statesmen, great generals, and foreign ambassadors enter and he noted how they were received not only by the common people but a lso by the senators and officials; and he often heard actors deliver lines ob- viously slanted to sway public opinion.

The average Roman citizen as early at

As a result of all this, the theater came to serve as a barometer of pub- l ic opinion. theater and to any line i n a play which could be construed as a topical refer- ence was a quite reliable indicator of the nature of, and any changes in, pub- l ic attitudes. Cicero makes many references to the spectators ' reactions to himself, to Pompey, and to Caesar , and on one occasion (Att, 14, 3 ) he asks his friend Atticus to keep him informed of those cheered by the people at the mimes and of any significant speeches made by the actors . erable respect for these demonstrations in the theater as indicators of gen- eral attitudes; so do la te r wr i te rs . Suetonius (Calb. 13), for example, te l ls us of the reaction, as shown in the theater, to the approach of the new ein- peror Galba to Rome, and Tacitus (Hist. 2, 55, 4) mentions that the death of Otho was f i r s t made known in the theater and produced a cheer for Vitellius. Thus the theater helped its patron to acquire a knowledge of world affairs and at the same t ime helped him to fo rm conclusions based on this knowledge.

The audience's reaction to prominent persons who entered the

-

He shows consid-

Today one naturally thinks of the play itself as the chief reason for ing to the theater. While this was not quite so much the case in Roman t imes, still the drama performed on the Roman stage probably had a m o r e lasting ef- fect on the attitudes of the spectators than any other element of the theater . Though some Latin plays were of native origin and dealt with Roman life, the fabulae palliatae alnd most tragedies were taken f rom Greek plays o r built

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around Greek themes. which served to spread an interest in Hellenism among the Romans. drama changed over the centuries, many foreign elements remained or were added.

These plays were surely among the earliest media As

Though only fragments of the early Roman tragedy survive, we know that much of it drew i ts themes and characters f rom Greek mythology and leg- end. Cicero, for instance, quotes such wri ters as Pacuvius, Accius, and En- nius and once remarks that he himself seems to rely for illustrations on the myths told in tragedy. Since, however, we do not have these tragedies to ex- amine, it seems better to turn our attention to the fabulae palliatae, of which we do have examples remaining. Most wri ters who have thoroughly analyzed these comedies seem to agree that many features of Greek life appear in them?

Because the characters generally have Greek names and the setting is often Athens, Roman spectators would be likely to attribute any strange so- cial customs in the plays to the Greeks and would become well acquainted with certain Greek attitudes which differed from Roman attitudes. At t imes the Roman wri ter makes a point of letting the audience know that his charac- t e r s a r e following Greek customs, though this i s most likely to happen, per - haps, when he feels that what his characters a r e doing might seem to Romans either very unreal o r somewhat reprehensible. In the Stichus (436-450) of Plautus, for example, a slave tells the audience directly that i t should not be surprised at the activities of himself and his friends, since in Athens slaves a r e allowed to drink, have dinner engagements, and car ry on love affairs. In several passages (e. g . , Most. 22-24, 64-65) the verb pergraecor is used to mean "play the Greek, I ' in other words "revel" o r "carouse. 'I In most cases, however, no explanation is made when the characters follow Greek habits, and none apparently was needed.

Further acquaintance with Greek thought and culture would come through the many allusions to Greek mythology, legend, and l i terature found in the comedies. These references a r e too numerous and often too closely inter- woven with the thought and action of the play to have been ignored by the spec- ta tors . often more than once- - a r e Hercules, Achilles, Hector, Thetis, Ulysses, Ajax, Nestor, Agamemnon's herald Talthybius, Calchas, Alcmena, Geryon, Argus, Phrixus, Medea, Thyestes, Pentheus, Orestes, Oedipus, Danae, and Penel- ope. far from ignorant of Greek mythology, but in many cases their stories would have to be known if the passages referring to them were to be fully appreci- ated. When in the Stichus (1-6) one of the women compares herself and her s is ter to Penelope, the spectator would need to know of Penelope's long and faithful wait for the return of Ulysses if the complete significance of the worn-

Among the many mythological and legendary characters mentioned- -

Any spectator who knew even the identity of all these individuals was

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a n ' s speech were to be understood. In the Bacchides ( F r a g . 151, the Menaech- mi (902), and the Pseudolus (12441, cer ta in passages re fer r ing to Ulysses a r e c l ea r only if the hea re r knows about the hero ' s wanderings and about his tal- ent fo r t r ickery . that Ulysses ' grandfather Autolycus was a thief o r e lse m i s s the whole signifi- cance of one cha rac t e r ' s lament that he had t rus ted his gold to an Autolycuse In other plays Plautus makes comparisons which a s sume a knowledge on the spec ta tor ' s par t of the ransom paid to Achilles fo r Hector ' s body ( M e r c , 488), the relationship between Thetis and Achilles (Truc . 730-7311, the arms made fo r Achilles by Vulcan (Epid-34- 381, the ancient "blackboard jungle'' d r a m a featuring Hercules and Linus (Bacch, 152-1541, the manner of T roy ' s capture (Bacch.. 925-973), the chief charac te r i s t ic of Nestor (Men, 932), Alcmena a s Juno ' s r ival (Merc , 689-6901, the abnormal physical make-up of Geryon, Juno's reason for having 10 guarded by Argus (Au1.553-5591, - and the horrifying mea l served to Thyestes (Rud. 508-509). that Oedipus solved the riddle of the sphinx (And.194) and that Jupi ter seduced Dana& Eun.584-5911,

-

In one case (Batch, 2751, the spectator even had to know

Terence adds the necessity of knowing -

These e x a m d e s indicate how Drominent Greek lo re i s in the fabulae D a l - - l iatae. The educated Romans, of course , must have learned much of this l o r e during the i r ear ly training OF f r o m the i r reading of Greek l i t e ra ture , but it i s difficult to s ee how the lower c l a s ses would have had opportunity to become acquainted with the m o r e complicated and obscure myths except through some such agency a; the theater . Probably religious r i t e s would have led to a. know- ledge of some s tor ies of the gods, but these would most likely have been ra ther l imited. It is evident that these allusions interested the audiences, for a crowd of Romans, many of them commoners, would not have permit ted them- selves to be bored by frequent and sometimes ra ther lengthy passages devoted to subjects about which they knew and cared nothinga therefore , that as t ime went on the average Roman theater-goer acquired a considerable knowledge of Greek mythology, l i t e ra ture , and his tory and with it, surely, some understanding of the Greek mentality and outlook upon life.

J t may be assumed,

One fur ther element in PPautus which s h d d be noticed is his occasional introduction of ph rases o r sentences i n Greek. They a r e t o be found, fo r ex- ample, in the Bacchides (1162), the Captivi (880-8831, the Poenulus $135-139), the Pseudolus (443, 483), and the Trinummus (187, 419) In severa l c a s e s the speeches a r e put into the mouths of slaves o r paras i tes , but i n at leas t two inst3nces words o r brief ph rases i n Greek a r e spoken by men of position. Plautus was interested in the effect--often comic--of these foreign words and not i n teaching Greek to the Romans, but it is not impossible that quick-eared spectators left the theater with a Greek word 01- two on their tongues jus t as today we sometimes hea r , fo r example, a F rench expression tossed off by someone who knows no m o r e F r e n c h than what he has heard at a movie o r i n

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a popular song. t imes help to arouse interest and bring some awareness that people may speak in a strange language and sti l l be human beings, be recalled here that Horace speaks in the - Ars Poetica (53-58) of the coining of Latin words from a "Greek fount'' by Plautus and Caecilius and suggests that the Romans approved.

Even such meager experiences with a foreign language some-

Incidentally it might

It is interesting that both Plautus and Terence seemed to want their audi- Plautus ences to know that they were using Greek plays as sources or models.

in seven of his plays and Terence in five acknowledge their Greek originals. In the Menaechmi (7-10) Plautus says in so many words that poets claim that the setting of their comedies is Athens in order that the play may seem more Grecian to the audience. These facts, added to the f ree use of Greek custom, myth, and legend already mentioned, form convincing evidence of the deep in- terest in Hellenic culture which was developing in Rome and of the readiness of the Romans to be influenced by that culture.

4

One very important element of the theater not yet mentioned a s a possi- ble factor in the spread of cosmopolitanism i s the actors. Stage performers never had a really acceptable social status in Rome. Many were slaves, but whether slave or not they were regarded as degraded by their appearance on the stage. In spite of their low social status, however, they came in t ime to have a remarkable influence over some of the highest-ranking persons in Rome. Sulla, Mark Antony, and various emperors, for example, seemed at t imes completely under the sway of certain mimes, and many of Rome's most prom- inent matrons created scandals by carrying on affairs with handsome actors. A good many of these performers were foreigners--Greeks, Africans, Asi- atics. Juvenal ( 3 , 93-100) mentions several Greek actors by name and, al- though he obviously dislikes both Greeks and Greek-loving Romans, he unin- tentionally compliments the a r t of a Greek actor who, he says, plays the par t of a woman so well that he seems to be a woman. banquet speaks of a Greek tragedian as the greatest member of his profession (Petr . 64). Asiatic performers , and the Greek wri ter Athenaeus (1, 19-20; 4, 183e) com- ments on the popularity with Romans of Greek, Egyptian, and Asiatic mimes, musicians, jugglers, and dancers. Many who were not actually of foreign birth had probably visited countries outside of Italy, since companies of t rav- eling actors went about giving plays.

A guest at Trimalchio's

Plutarch (Lives 24, 1-3) mentions Antony's liking for Greek and

Aside, then, from the glamor which apparently attended the profession in those days as it does now, there was rather certainly an air of cosmopol- itanism about the foreign o r travelled actors which added to their charm for the Romans. Another element may well have encouraged the Romans in their tendency to associate with actors , Certain authors, including Cicero, Nepos, and the quite late wri ter Ausonius, point out that although acting was regarded

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as disgraceful by the Romans the Greeks took an opposite view and actually bestowed honors upon stage per formers . Since many Romans in different periods had an almost slavish admiration for the Greek civilization, it is logical that the attitude of the Greeks toward their theater and actors may have influenced the individual Roman's way of thinking even though i t never brought a change in the legal restrictions on actors . a ture shows us that the Romans came more and more under the spell of the stage per formers , and it i s almost cer ta in that this influence would lead to greater cosmopolitanism in the Roman's outlook.

At any ra te Latin l i t e r -

In summarizing, as we think of the three main elements of the Roman theater-- i ts service as an arena for molding public opinion, the dramas them- selves, and those who performed the plays--we can scarcely avoid the con- clusion that the theater was a potent influence in furthering cosmopolitanism among the people of Rome. The influence was chiefly Hellenic, it is t rue, and continued so throughout the history of Rome,since both tragedy and pan- tomime were largely concerned with Greek myth and legend, It i s a lso t rue that Roman wr i te rs sometimes spoke out against the kind of influence Greece exerted through the theater , Augustine (C . D. 1, 311, who frequently denounces the theater as a vicious influence (he could afford to, having seen all the good plays in his youth), says that Nasica warned the senate, when it was consider- ing building seats for the theater, not to allow the luxurious manners of Greece to destroy Roman manliness. (Epit. 48) says in recounting the same incident that the people continued to watch the shows standing up, not being, it seems, as concerned about their manliness as was Nasica. 2, 1, 156-167) takes the opposite point of view in his famous line, "Greece captured took captive the savage victor and brought the arts into rustic La- tiurn, " and that he goes on to describe with obvious approval the Roman imi- tation of Greek drama, especially in tragedy. Certainly it would be hard t o imagine a more pleasant o r effective means for removing the narrow, na- tionalistic prejudices which had bound the early Roman than the deeply-re- flective and wide-ranging Greek mind as the Roman citizen must often have glimpsed it through his own theater.

--

Nasica seems to have won his point, but Livy

It i s ra ther pleasant to remember that Horace (Ep. -

NOTES

See Cicero, Div.1, 28, 59; Att ,2, 19; Phil.1, 15, 36-37; Ovid, A . A. 3, 394; Seneca, Clem.1, 6, 1; Pliny, - - H. N. 7 , 39, 128; Martial 6 , 34, 5; Tacitus, Ann. 14, 20-21; Suetonius, Vita Terentii , 2; Augustine, Confessions 1, 10. See W . Seare, The Roman Stage: A Short History of Latin Drama in the Time of the Republic (Harvard Univ. P r e s s , 1951), 165-167; W.

- -- - 1.

- - -- -- - 2.

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3.

4.

5.

Warde Fowler, Social Life at Rome in the Age of Cicero (NewPork, 1927). 298; Theodor Momrnsdn, The History of Rome, tr. W i l l i a m

P A - - - - -

---- P. Dickson (New York, 1868), 11, 501. See George E. Duckworth, ed., - The Complete Roman Drama (New York, 1942), I, Xxviii-xxix; Philip Whaley Harsh, A Handbook of Classical Drama (Stanford, Calif. , 1944), 336, 37627; H. J. Rose, A Handbook of Latin Literature from the Earliest Times to the Death

~~ -- of St. Au-sstine (New York, n. d. ), 79; Sidney G. A s h o r e , ed., - The Comedies of Terence (New York, 1908). See Plautus, Cz.31-34; Merc. 9-10; Mil. 85; As. 10-11; Poen. 53; - - - Rud. 32; Trium. 18-19; Terence, And. 9-14; Eun. 19-20, 30-33; Phorm. 24-26; Adel. 6-11; Heaut. 4-9. The prologues of the Casina and the Poenulus may not have been written by Plautus. See Cicero, Arch. 5, 10; Nepos, Praef. 5; Ausonius, Masque of the Seven Sages 11, 19-25, 29-40.-

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L-

A paper presented at the

Eleventh University of Kentucky Foreign Language Conference

Lexington, Kentucky 1958

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