No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
Plautus and Seneca: Acting in Nero's Rome
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 September 2009
Extract
Anyone who has ever read the tragedies of Seneca must have wondered at the intention of the author. In the absence of any external evidence for their staging this is not surprising. W. Beare argues for declamation before a select audience who would have appreciated the sparkle of the rhetoric. G. E. Duckworth, whilst stressing that presentation on stage cannot be proved, suggests tentatively that they were at least written with an eye to performance. C. D. N. Costa holds out for solo virtuoso recitals, with perhaps extracts or a few scenes being performed. F. Ahl recalls the emperor Domitian's enactment forbidding plays to be presented anywhere except indoors, and thus the large houses of the aristocracy may have been home to tragic theatre. V. Sorensen feels that a public performance of Seneca's tragedies would have been a notable public occasion, and with his ample means to fund such events, Seneca may have been trying to entice a large audience towards the benefits of Stoic philosophy.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © The Classical Association 1999
References
1. ‘Plautus, Terence and Seneca: a comparison of aims and methods’ in Anderson, M. J. (ed.), Classical Drama and its Influence (London, 1965), 111Google Scholar.
2. The Nature of Roman Comedy: a Study in Popular Entertainment, 2nd edn. (Bristol, 1994), 71Google Scholar.
3. Seneca, Medea (Oxford, 1973), 3Google Scholar.
4. Seneca, Medea, translated and with an introduction (Ithaca, 1986), 27Google Scholar.
5. Seneca: the Humanist at the Court of Nero (Edinburgh, 1984), 284Google Scholar.
6. Pratt, N. T., Seneca's Drama (Chapel Hill, 1983), 20Google Scholar.
7. Op. cit, 17.
8. Pratt, , op. cit., 22–4Google Scholar and Fitch, J. G. (ed.), Seneca, Hercules Furens (Ithaca, 1987), 44Google Scholar.
9. Tarrant, R. J. (ed.), Seneca, Agamemnon (Cambridge, 1976), 7Google Scholar.
10. Fitch, , op. cit., 46–9Google Scholar.
11. Beare, W., op. cit., 111Google Scholar and Duckworth, G. E., op. cit., 70Google Scholar.
12. Inst. 10.1.99, 11.3.178–82.
13. Ep. 5.19.3.
14. Ahl, F., op. cit., 13Google Scholar.
15. , D. and Henry, E., The Mask of Power: Seneca's Tragedies and Imperial Rome (Warminster, 1985), 7Google Scholar.
16. Pratt, , op. cit., 150Google Scholar and Frank, M. (ed.), Seneca, Phoenissae (Leiden, 1995), 34Google Scholar.
17. Costa, C. D. N., op. cit., 6Google Scholar.
18. Costa, , op. cit., 5Google Scholar and Pratt, , op. cit., 150Google Scholar.
19. Op. cit., 34.
20. Bartsch, S., Actors in the Audience: Theatricality and Doublespeak from Nero to Hadrian (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1994), 3CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
21. Bartsch, , op. cit, 125–47, 181Google Scholar.
22. Cf. Pratt, , op. cit., 150Google Scholar.
23. Wallace-Hadrill, A., ‘Pliny the Elder and Man's Unnatural History’, G&R 37 (1990), 80–6Google Scholar.
24. Costa, , op. cit., 5–6Google Scholar, Tarrant, , op. cit., 15–18Google Scholar, Fitch, , op. cit., 45Google Scholar.
25. Beacham, R. C., The Roman Theatre and its Audience (London, 1991), 32–5Google Scholar.
26. Fitch, , op. cit., 45Google Scholar.
27. Costa, , op. cit., 108Google Scholar.
28. Beacham, , op. cit., 35Google Scholar.
29. Beacham, , op. cit., 149Google Scholar.
30. Beacham, , op. cit., 31Google Scholar.
31. Ahl, , op. cit, 30Google Scholar. An excellent detailed discussion on a specialized aspect of the potential cruelty of comedy can be found in Garland, R., ‘The Mockery of the Deformed and Disabled in Graeco-Roman Culture’ in Jäkel, S. and Timonen, A. (edd.), Laughter Down the Centuries, vol. 1 (Turku, 1994), 71–84Google Scholar.
32. Cl. 1.22.1.
33. Mor. 673c–4c
34. Costa, , op. cit., 152Google Scholar.