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♀Important People♂ Playwrights Actors Critics Historical Figures Technicians Directors [Quintus Horatius Flaccus] Horace (65-8 B.C.E.): At a young age Horace wanted to be a writer and his family sent him to Athens and Rome to learn. Horace was best known for his lyric poetry and he wrote for many people of power. In his essays Horace discussed dramatic poetry and rules. He believed that tragedy and comedy should not be mixed, there should always be five acts, no more than three speaking actors should be on stage at one time, the gods should not appear in a plot unless necessary, and that the chorus should be used as an integral part of the action, giving moral advice. He believed it was the role of drama to entertain and instruct. Tarquin the Elder (c. 616-579 B.C.E.): Roman ruler who established the Ludi Romani, a theatre festival where Greek drama was presented. [Titus Maccius Plautus] Plautus (c. 254-184 B.C.E.): The most popular comic playwright, Plautus wrote farce and his plays were very popular with audiences all over Rome. His plots were similar to Greek New Comedy in that there was no chorus and his plays did not deal with contemporary political or social issues. Plautus understood song and dance and incorporated music into his plays, which often explored the difficulties of romance. Plautus' popularity in Rome initially led to over 100 plays being attributed to him, but today the number of authentic Plautus plays is considered to be around 40, only 20 still in existence. [Publius Terentius Afer] Terence (c. 185-159 B.C.E.): Terence was another popular comic playwright, emphasizing characters and elegant language. He openly borrowed plots from Greek drama, often combining two Greek plots to create a new play. Most Roman comic writers borrowed ideas from the Greeks, but Terence was the only one to be criticized for it. He used the prologue to defend his plays instead of for the traditional use, which was to supply background information. Terence's less exaggerated drama was not very popular with common audiences who didn't appreciate his use of language and superior plot construction. Six plays exist in full today, which may be the only plays he wrote. The "Afer" in his name may refer to Africa as a place of origin, which would make Terence the first major black playwright of the western world. After Terence's death no comedies were preserved in Rome, perhaps meaning there was a decline in the quality of writing. [Lucius Annaeus Seneca] Seneca (c. 4 B.C.E-65 C.E.): Seneca was a chief Roman tragic writer. His plays borrowed plots from Greek tragedies, but his chorus was not essential to the story, and he used onstage violent spectacle. His characters also did not have the "tragic flaw" so integral to Greek drama, instead they are overwhelmed by an emotion, making them very melodramatic. Seneca was not as popular as the other major Roman playwrights, but his works were influential to many Renaissance writers. A man by the same name was a tutor to the emperor Nero, and most scholars believe it is the same person. Seneca's life was as dramatic as his plays. He was very involved with politics, not favored by Roman emperors, and because of this, Seneca was exiled from Rome a couple of times. Seneca was probably called back to Rome in 49 C.E. by Agrippina, emperor Claudius' wife, to be the tutor to her son Nero. When Nero became emperor, Seneca was a chief advisor for five years until the year 62. Seneca fell from power and the emperor ordered him to commit suicide, which he did. Livius Andronicus (240-204 B.C.E): One of the first playwrights to write in Latin, the language of Rome, but believed to have been born in Greece. |
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