Fabulae Praetextaein context: when were plays on contemporary subjects performed in Republican Rome?

Abstract

The fabula praetexta is a category of Roman drama about which we are poorly informed. Ancient testimonia are scanty and widely scattered, while surviving fragments comprise fewer than fifty lines. Only five or six titles are firmly attested. Scholarly debate, however, has been extensive, and has especially focused on reconstructing the plots of the plays.1 The main approach has been to amplify extant fragments by fitting them into a plot taken from treatments of the same episode in later historical sources such as Livy, Dionysius, or Plutarch.2 This method was extended by Mommsen and others in their efforts to identify new titles and plots by isolating passages in the historians which seem written in a dramatic style, and could therefore be interpreted as derivations from historical plays.3 Such a line of approach is both risky and subjective. It is based on the desire to recover a lost genre, which modern scholars feel must or should have existed. It is tempting to imagine that the Romans would have encouraged a thriving national theatre on historical themes. Such a genre, it is argued, would have been influential in shaping the average Roman's view of past events and the treatment of famous episodes by later historians.4 The conclusions reached have virtually no basis in the ancient sources we actually have. The result is largely a fiction created by the scholarly imagination.

Seneca's Characters

“…Doubtless this was one of the reasons for Marcus Junius Brutus wanting to re-stage Accius' Brutus at the Ludi Apollinares of 44 bc, in the aftermath of Caesar's assassination: as the current liberator of the Republic, he would be visibly mirrored by the character embodied in the play; Marcus Brutus himself, and the actor playing Lucius Brutus would both be 38 Flower (1995) 177-9, refuting claims by Dupont (1985) 218-24. 39 Who commissioned fabulae praetextae and to what purpose, are questions addressed by Flower (1995); Manuwald (2001) 119-21;and Kragelund (2002) 25-7. Fuller assessment of Accius' Decius and Brutus is in Kragelund (2016) 46-57.…”

Flavian Rome

“…Scholars have assessed the play in stylistic terms with such  . And yet, more recently, Flower (1995) 170-2, 189-90, esp. 5 Few would now dissent even from the last of these.…”

Staging Roman Slavery in the Second Century Bce

“…It is possible that Pacuvius' Paullus was also performed on this occasion, see Leigh (2004), 158. 6. On the praetexta, see Flower (1995), Wiseman (1998), 1-16, Manuwald (2001).…”