shaping these subjects was not possessed by them, least of all when tragedies were first presented to them. They were translations from the Greek, of rude execution in the case of Andronicus, but steadily improved and made more original by Naevius, Ennius, Pacuvius and Attius. All these tragic writers of the republican time possessed great gravity in their characters, sentiments and style, though they, fell occasionally into bombast or triviality, and made their verses somewhat awkwardly. The same may be assumed of the tragedies of Atilius, C. Titius, C. Julius Caesar, Strabo, Varro, Q. Cicero, Cassius of Parma, Asinius Pollio, though the last of them seems to have been original in his subjects. The formal refinement of the Augustan period extended also to tragedy, and no doubt appeared just as much in L. Varius' Thyestes and Ovid's Medea as in Turranius, Gracchus, Mam. Scaurus, Pomponius Secundus and in the tragedies of Seneca. But the greater the attention paid to form and style, the less did the poets aspire to popular effect, and phraseology continued more and more to be cultivated. Among the later tragic writers only Curiatius Maternus is of any importance.

1. The old collections of the fragments of these poets (the last by Bothe in his Poetae scenici latini) are antiquated. Tragicorum latinorum reliquiae, recensuit O. Ribbeck. Lips. 1852 (with quaestiones scenicae and verbal index.) [a new edition preparing]

2. T. Baden, de causis neglectae a Romanis tragoediae, Gött. 1789. H. Planck, proll. to his edition of Ennius' Medea (Gött. 1807. 4o.) p. 9—66. G. Köpke, Why are the Romans unequal to the Greeks in tragedy? in Seebode's Neues Archiv 1826 p. 146-161 and before his translation of Plautus. A. G. Lange, Vindiciae tragoediae rom., Lips. 1822. 4o. and in his Miscellaneous Writings (Leipzig 1832) p. 15 sqq. W. Regel, virorum doctorum de re tragica Rom. iudicia etc. Gött. 1834. 4°. and res tragica Rom. retractata, Lüneburg 1845. 4. Th. Ladewig, Analecta Scenica, Neustrelitz 1848. 4o. But above all F. G. Welcker, The Greek tragedies etc. (Suppl. II 3 to the Rhen. Mus. Bonn 1841. p. 1332-1484.) On the tragedies of the Imperial period see also L. Friedländer, History of Roman manners II. p. 308-314.

3. The number of tragic poets known to us by more or less explicit mention amounts at the utmost to 36, that of their plays to about 150 (see Ribbeck p. 435-439); but only Seneca's plays are in existence. A general criticism in Quintil. X 1, 79: tragoediae scriptores veterum Attius atque Pacuvius clarissimi gravitate sententiarum, verborum pondere, auctoritate personarum. Ceterum nitor et summa in excolendis operibus manus magis videri potest temporibus quam ipsis

...

defuisse. (98.) Iam Varii Thyestes cuilibet Graecorum comparari [?] potest. Ovidii Medea videtur mihi ostendere quantum ille vir praestare potuerit si ingenio suo imperare quam indulgere maluisset. Eorum quos viderim longe princeps [?] Pomponius Secundus.

4. Tragedy also consisted of portions of sedate and of more excited character, of dialogue and of lyric parts which were sung-diverbium and cantica. Comp. Donat. de trag. et comoed.: diverbia histriones pronuntiabant, cantica vere temperabantur modis non a poeta, sed a perito artis musicae factis. The dialogue was principally in iambic trimeters, admitting however, in the Republican period, of spondees (and so also anaposts and dactyls) in all places, and was only treated with more purity after the time of Augustus. The cantica show little variety in their metres, anaposts and cretics being the most frequent, besides which we have also trochaic and iambic tetrameters, and dactylic lines. They were accompanied by a tibia (Cic. orat. 55, 184. de or. I 60, 245. Tusc. I 44, 107. Hor. Ep. II 3, 215) and habitués were skilled enough to know the piece about to be performed from the prelude of the tibicen (Cic. Acad. pr. II 7,20, comp. de or. III 50, 196). In Cicero's time the eminent actor Aesopus brought tragedies (espec. those of Pacuvius and Attius) very much into vogue: see e. g. Cic. p. Sest. 56. Fin. V 22, 63. Tusc. I 44, 106. Lael. 7, 24. Other tragoediarum actores are Rupilius (Cic. off. I 31, 114), Catienus and Fufius (Hor. S. II 3, 60 sq.), Apelles (Suet. Calig. 33), Glyco (Pers. V 9), Apollinaris (Suet. Vesp. 19). Even Seneca observes the rule of the 3 actors and must therefore be assumed to have written his tragedies for actual performances, as has been shown by Weil, Revue archéol. 1864. I p. 21-36.

5. A chorus in the Greek manner was impossible for the Romans for the simple reason of the Senate occupying the orchestra. Choric dancing being thus excluded, we find now and then a number of performers simultaneously on the stage (the pulpitum of which was wider for this reason, Vitruv. V 5) and singing together (catervae atque concentus, Cic. de or. III 50, 196; comp. Columella XII 3). In the ancient Roman tragedians a certain imitation of the choric songs is not improbable, because they were mere translators; this is supported by such titles as Bacchae, Eumenides (comp. Cic. p. Rosc. Am. 21, 66 sq. in Pison. 20, 46), Hellenes, Myrmidones, Phinidae, Phoenissae, Stasiastae, Troades, as well as by numerous details. The account of Lucullus, e. g., in Hor. Ep. I 6, 40 sqq. (comp. Plut. Lucull. 39: orgarηγοῦ ποτε φιλοτιμουμένου περὶ θέας καὶ χορῷ τινι κόσμον αἰτουμένου πορφυρᾶς χλαμύδας) presupposes a chorus. In Andronicus' Ino the chorus sung hymnum Triviae (Ter. Maur. 1934), in Naevius' Lycurgus we find a chorus of bacchanals, in Ennius' Iphigenia (Gell. XIX 10, 12) and Medea (fr. 14 Eur. Med. 1251 sqq.) there are choruses; in Pa cuvius is a stasimum (Mar. Vict. p. 2522 P.), and in Antiopa, Chryses, Niptra there are also parts resembling a chorus. A 'chorus Proserpinae' is mentioned by Varro L. L. VI 74. Traces of choruses are more scarce in Attius, though evident in the Bacchae and Philocteta Pomponius

Secundus (Ter. Maur. 1965 sqq. 2135 sqq. Mar. Vict. p. 2564 P.) and Seneca would not, it may be supposed, have composed choric songs without the example of the ancient poets. See in general Grysar, On canticum and chorus in the Roman tragedies, Vienna 1855 Trans. of the Acad. at Vienna XV p. 365-423 (the canticum p. 367-383; the tragic chorus p. 384-403; the citharoedi and cantores tragoediarum in the Imperial period, p. 403-423.)

14. The (fabula) praetexta is the Roman tragedy of a national character; in the absence of indigenous heroic legends, historic subjects were adopted and, as a rule, by poets who also wrote tragedies on Greek subjects and after Greek originals. Thus Naevius (Clastidium, Romulus), Ennius (Ambracia, Sabinae?) Pacuvius (Paullus), Attius (Aeneadae, s. Decius; Brutus) Curiatius Maternus (Cato, Domitius Nero ?). Balbus wrote also Iter ad Lentulum, Persius a Restio (?), an un known poet (Cassius?), Marcellus. The tragedy of Octavia claims to be a praetexta. In form and character these plays were made after tragic models, but their style is in agreement with the subjects, being less sublime.

1. The form 'praetexta' is used by Asinius Pollio (in Cic. Fam. X 32, 3, 5), Horace (Ep. II 3, 288), Probus (vita Persii p. 237 Jahn), Festus (p. 223, comp. p. 352 a. M.); the designation 'praetextata' prevails in the later grammarians.

2. Diomedes p. 487 P. = 489, 25 sqq. K.: prima species est togatarum (national dramas) quae praetextataè dicuntur, in quibus imperatorum negotia agebantur et publica et reges romani vel duces inducuntur, personarum dignitate et sublimitate tragoediis similes. praetextatae autem dicuntur quia fere regum vel magistatuum qui praetexta utuntur in eiusmodi fabulis acta comprehenduntur. (Comp. praetextati in magistratibus, in sacerdotiis, Liv. XXXIV 7. Also Non. Marc. p. 541: praetexta, insigne romanorum, quod supra tunicas honorati quique sumunt.) Donatus de comoedia: tragoedia, si latina argumentatio sit, praetextata dicitur. Euanth. de trag. et com.: praetextatas, ab dignitate personarum et latina historia. Lydus de magg. I40: ἡ τραγῳδία τέμνεται εἰς κρηπιδάταν καὶ πραιτεξτάταν· ὧν ἡ μὲν κρηπιδάτα ἑλληνικὰς ἔχει ὑποθέσεις, ἡ δὲ ngaIešτára éwμaïzás. Hence Tac. dial. 2, though inaccurately, designates Curiatius Maternus' Cato as tragoedia. Sen. Ep. I 8, 8 means praetextae in speaking of togatae: see below 17, 1.

3. The fragments are collected by J. H. Neukirch, fab. tog. p. 71-95, and Ribbeck, trag. p. 235-240, see ibid. p. 348-351. F. G. Welcker, the Greek tragedies (1841) p. 1344-1347. 1388 sqq. 1402 sq.

15. The earliest of the different kinds of comedy (§ 12) is the palliata, on Greek subjects and imitated from Greek

originals, especially the New Attic Comedy. Its period extends over the whole sixth century V. C. To this belong Andronicus, Naevius, Plautus, Ennius, Trabea, Atilius, Licinius Imbrex, Juventius, Statius Caecilius, Luscius Lanuvinus, Terence, Plautius, Turpilius: a series of names on one hand representing a scale of increasing refinement in style, but on the other hand also of decreasing originality with regard to the treatment of the Greek originals. The first composers of palliatae endeavoured to assimilate their pieces to the popular taste by various additions of a local or temporal character or by making them more coarse; the later ones, Terence e. g., despised attractions of this kind, but in so doing lost the popular sympathies which were turned to the more amusing style of the togatae, Atellanae and mimi. The consequence was that the production of new palliatae ceased, and if plays of this class were wanted, the stage had to fall back upon older literature. The plays of Plautus and Terence subsisted on the stage after the establishment of the Empire. The original productions during this latter period, e. g. by Vergilius Romanus and M. Pomponius Bassulus, were confined to small circles and remained without effect.

=

1. Diomed. III p. 486 sq. P. = 489, 18 K.: graecas fabulas ab habitu palliatas Varro ait nominari. Comp. Plaut. Curc. II 3, 9: isti Graeci palliati etc. Pallium graecanicum (Suet. Dom. 4) iuάrior Ellyvixóv ἱμάτιον ἑλληνικόν (Lucian merc. cond. 25). The palliata was also briefly styled comoedia and the poets belonging to it comici. Comp. Ritschl, Parerga p. 189. Hence Diomed. III p. 488 P. 490, 14 sqq. K.: togata tabernaria a comoedia differt, quod in comoedia graeci ritus inducuntur personaeque graecae.., in illa vero latinae.. Terentius et Caecilius comoedias scripserunt. In this way Quintil. XI 3, 178 mentions Demetrius and Stratocles as maximos actores comoediarum, the following description and 182 showing that palliatae are understood. So also Fronto Ep. p. 54 and 211 N. (comoedias, Atellanas). 106 (sententias comes ex comoediis) etc.

2. The old Attic Comedy was too much connected with its own period to be fit for imitation by another nation and in a different period; but the middle Comedy is merely a transitional stage. On the other hand, the New Comedy was the nearest in time, in the sixth century v. c. held the stage, and was by its typical delineation of character and general human bearing especially fitted to be transplanted to foreign soil. In it we notice especially Menander, besides also Diphilus and Philemon. Others are mentioned by Gell. II 23, 1: comoedias lectitamus nostrorum poetarum sumptas et versas de Graecis, Menandro aut Posidippo aut Apollodoro aut Alexide et quibusdam item aliis comicis. Bugge, causas nonnullas neglectae apud Romanos comoediae Graecorum veteris et mediae ex ipsa civitatis romanae forma eruere conatus

est, Christiania 1823. On the dying out of the pall. in the Imperial period M. Aurel. comm. XI 6: ἡ νέα κωμῳδία πρὸς τί ποτε παρείληπται ἢ κατ ̓ ὀλίγον ἐπὶ τὴν ἐκ μιμήσεως φιλοτεχνίαν ὑπερρύη; a mere exercise of the pen was the experiment of Sardinus, ingeniosus adolescens (in the Augustan period), a quo graecae fabulae eleganter in sermonem latinum conversae sunt (Sen. suas. VII 12 p. 43 sq. Bu.). Comoedias audio in Plin. Ep. V 3, 2 should be understood of recitation (as in the case of Vergilius Romanus).

3. The fragments of the written palliatae (except Plautus and Terence) besides Bothe's Poetae scenici lat. especially in O. Ribbeck Comicorum latinorum . . . reliquiae. (Lips. 1855) p. 3-112. A curious classification of the poets of palliatae (Caecilius Statius, Plautus, Naevius, Licinius, Atilius, Terentius, Turpilius, Trabea, Luscius, Ennius) by Volcatius Sedigitus, see in Gellius XV 24. Th. Ladewig, on the canon of Volc. Sed. Neustrelitz 1842. 4o vainly endeavours to produce rational grounds for it see Ritschl in Reifferscheid's Suetonius p. 501 sq. H. Iber de Volcati Sedigiti canone, Münster, 1865. 48 pp. 8o.

16. From the New Comedy the palliata took not only its plots, characters, arrangements and outward form, but also its spirit of surfeited life and moral nihilism, and in this way contributed not a little to the depravation of Roman morals. The prologue, epilogue and perhaps also the division into acts are especially derived from the Attic originals. The palliata having no more a chorus than the New Comedy, each piece is divided into portions of dialogue (diverbia) and monodies (cantica). In the first the poets of the palliatae curtailed, for their audiences, the loquacity of their originals, especially by means of the so-called 'contamination,' being moreover less limited in the number of their performers than their originals. The dialogue is generally in iambic senarii; in the cantica we have, besides septenarii, a frequent use of cretics and bacchics, the latter proportinately strict, the prosody of the senarii with numerous and large concessions to the popular pronunciation. The recitation of the cantica was accompanied by a tibia. The performers were masked not until after the time of Terence.

1. On the relation of the palliata to the New Comedy see espec. Mommsen H. of Rome I p. 883-885 and W. Hertzberg's introd. to his translation of Plautine plays (Stuttgart 1866) p. IX-XXXII. The characters in both are miserly fathers, spendthrift sons, cunning slaves, greedy and amorous girls, coarse and boastful soldiers, starved parasites, all of them symptoms of a decaying civilisation, with no vitality in it to save it. Isidor. Orig. XVIII 46: comoedi sunt qui pri