At first glance, Roman theatre history presents a fundamental problem: the evidence for theatre does not coincide with that for drama. That is, the majority of texts we have today derive from the second phase (the age of literary drama in... [more]
At first glance, Roman theatre history presents a fundamental problem: the evidence for theatre does not coincide with that for drama. That is, the majority of texts we have today derive from the second phase (the age of literary drama in the second and third centuries BCE), whereas all extant Roman theatres date significantly later and may not even have been constructed for dramatic performances at all. With that, it is hard to reconstruct the dynamics of Roman stagecraft. While much the same might be said of ancient Greece, it is certain that Greek post-classical theatres were designed for staging drama, at least to some extent. At Rome there is no such guarantee.
[show less]