More Related Content
What's hot
Viewers also liked
Viewers also liked (18)
Similar to The Theater and History of Ancient Rome
Similar to The Theater and History of Ancient Rome (20)
More from Jennifer Sassaman
Recently uploaded
Recently uploaded (20)
The Theater and History of Ancient Rome
- 1. THE THEATER AND HISTORY OF ANCIENT ROME
- 2. Founded (app.) 753 BCE Kingdom 8th/10th century BCE – 509 BCE Republic 509 BCE – 27 BCE Empire 27 BCE – 476 CE Western Roman Empire – 1453 CE
- 4. “Republican” Virtues Discipline Economy Endurance Military Precision Loyalty to Family Incorruptibility Sense of Duty Faith in Law and Order
- 5. Greece vs. Rome Philosophical Seeking answers to theoretical questions Why? Art: a serious exploration of the human condition Pragmatic Superb engineers, military tacticians, and administrators How? Art: grandiose, sentimental, diversionary Tour https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_phjB19ZEg Tour #2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrIEw
- 7. Republic vs. Empire Novelties: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuIzVut3JF8 Spectacle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrI-eK5IV0I
- 8. Panem et circensus “Translates into ‘bread and circuses.’ The writer was saying that in return for full bellies and entertainment, his people had given up their political responsibilities and therefore their power.” -Orson Scott Card
- 11. Tragedy Seneca Horace Ars Poetica
- 12. Comedy Melodrama 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tj-GZJhfBmI Melodrama 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZexYRkIRhVs Comedy Tonight: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvrh2e8Ep14
- 13. Roman Tragedy Dramatic Structure Divided into 5 episodes Elaborate speeches resembling forensic address Morality reflected through sensational deeds that illustrate the evils of unrestrained emotion “Sententiae: pity, proverbial generalizations about the human condition Violence and horror Preoccupation with magic, death, and superhuman worlds Characters dominated by a single obsessive passion that drives them to their doom Technical devices used like asides, soliloquies, confidantes
- 14. Atellan Farce Stock characters & situations Improvised dialogue Slapstick comedy
- 15. Stock Characters
- 16. Miles Gloriosos Braggart Soldier Shakespeare Theater’s Forum: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8NdEWc1faI
- 18. Fabula Rinciniata (Mime) Allison firespinning: https://video-ord1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hvideo-xap1/v/t43.1792-2/1330679_10103432060041013_61865_n.mp4?efg=eyJybHIiOjE1NjEsInJsYSI6MTAyNCwidmVuY29kZV90YWciOiJsZWdhY3lfaGQifQ%3D%3D&rl=1561&vabr=104
- 20. Roman Theater Architecture 790 known classical theaters 311 entirely Roman 290 mostly Roman
- 26. Circus Maximus
- 31. Naumachiae
Editor's Notes
- Roman Pantheon Completed in 126 AD At almost 2k years old its dome is still the world’s oldest, largest un reinforced dome Granite columns
- Roman Values
- This all says “empire” most should say “republic”
- Senatus PopulusQue Romanus “The Senate and the Roman People” This was the national motto and remains on manhole covers and other state owned items throughout Rome today. These virtues lessen more and more as we head towards and into the Empire, but still remain the ideal. This is their national identity and to understand the people of this time you must keep these qualities center in your thoughts. What is our national identity? (proud to be an american; the american dream)
- Rome absorbed many aspects of the people they conquered -- the arts and sciences from ancient Greece in particular were in high demand -- what aspects of other cultures are esteemed and/or have been absorbed into this country?
- What is the difference between the two? Are they synonyms? What form of government do we have? Democracy: Rule of the majority where the individual or any group of individuals have no protection against the power of the majority. There are no limitations on government or sovereignty. The ultimate authority rests with the population. “Mob rule” or when decisions are made to benefit the majority at the expense of any minorities it has power over. In a true democracy there is no legal power that protects the minority. Three wolves and a sheep sitting at a table. The wolves can vote to kill and eat the sheep and do so legally. Republic: Constitutionally or legally limited. The government can create laws to protect liberties and freedoms of the individual. There is the rule of law or constitution which guarantees inalienable rights to individuals and minority groups. This prevents those rights from being infringed upon by the whim or will or the majority. Three wolves (100 wolves) can’t eat the sheep because the sheep has the inalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. We live in a constitutional republic. The term “democracy” does not appear in the constitution nor does it appear in the declaration of independence. Next time someone tells you “this is a democracy” you can correct them.
- Republic Under the republic tragedy prospered for a time Comedy is also popular Neither form is philosophical Empire Regular drama is mostly abandoned in favor of variety entertainment Novelties Lavish elaborate spectacle thrills (TWD anyone!?!?) Let us consider the value of spectacle Rome gets this bad rap because spectacle was such a big part of what they did but spectacle can be deeply moving and require tremendous skill; I see no reason to denigrate Rome for this Festivals are still attached to drama What place do you think spectacle has in theater? Is it something that you think is overrated? Misused? Underappreciated? Do you think spectacle can be meaningful? How would you like to see spectacle explored onstage in your ideal future work or as an audience member? Which has greater value? What is the responsibility of the artist to his/her community? What was the responsibility of Greek theater vs. Roman? (segues neatly into…)
- Romans are significant for their development of theater (and paratheatricals) as popular entertainment. Someone read from p. 60 in the text, 2nd paragraph from the bottom “Rome’s many conquests led to prosperity for its citizens, who, because of their wealth and slave labor, had an abundance of leisure time. To help fill that time, theater was offered not just at a few festivals but many times during the year.” Bread and circuses. Anyone remember what Maximus is shouting in this scene? (ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED) Modern reference?
- Does this sound like us? Have we given up our political responsibilities and therefore our power for entertainment and bread (more americans voted in the last american idol than the last presidential race) Panem et Circenses: are there examples that can you think of in recent history where a politician manufactured public approval not through exceptional public service but rather through diversion and entertainment distraction?
- Sadly not kidding. (one big caveat: idol voters can vote more than once; in fact the average voter voted 38 times)
- Under the republic tragedy prospered for a time Echoed republican sentiments about honor, virtue, and loyalty Big change: Violence on stage
- Under the republic tragedy prospered for a time Echoed republican sentiments about honor, virtue, and loyalty Violence on stage Comedy is also popular Lighthearted treatment of domestic issues What four major changes did Roman comic writers make as they adopted the Greek New comedy into their own art form Melodrama – actual meaning of the word and how deeply entrenched it is in our sense of entertainment Neither form is philosophical
- p. 66/67 – have them get out their books and look at those two pages. Call out what they can find about how tragedy was structured, how it worked – write it out on the board How were Seneca’s tragedies structured? (write out on board) What were the rules that Horace put forth in the Ars Poetica (write out on board) Draw correlations between this structure and any one tragedy by Shakespeare. Or TWD How do you see comedy feeding the art that is to come? What did you see in THE MENAECHMI?
- Imported from Atella Early farce 300 BCE Very popular after the Republic Subject matter Gluttony Cheating Fighting Sexual exploits Confused with Satyr plays 4 stock characters in standardized costumes Bucco: vivacious, boisterous braggart Pappus: comic old man Maccus: gluttonous fool Dossenus: hunchback Simple plots, stock situations, stock characters in masks, improvisational dialogue and slapstick comedy sounds like?... Similar in form to Commedia Dell’Arte Fun fact: Caligula had an author of atellan farce burned alive for making fun of him. What’s up Donald Trump?
- What is the value of the stock character? What does it allow you to do? what stock characters do you see repeated in contermporary cinema and stage productions?
- Play by Plautus Stock character similar to the vivacious boisterous braggart in Atellan Farce Heroic, pompous, constantly bragging about how awesome he is Who does this sound like?
- Please someone cast channing tatum in this part!!! (or hugh jackman. I’m not picky)
- Popular under the republic SUUUPER popular under the empire Similar to Hellenic Mime but racier and more spectacular Unmasked – performers chosen for extreme beauty or ugliness Disliked by the Christians and dismissed by historians Obscene and violent
- Forerunner of modern ballet Storytelling dance Accompanied by an orchestra and a chorus Solo (occasionally a subordinate assistant) Plots taken from mythology or history Beauty, grace of movement, renowned for subtlety – odd in the Empire
- We’re going to look at one of the most Was one of the most important structures in all of Roman history. First and largest permanent stone theater in Rome Had religious and civic significance in addition to its prominence as a cultural institution of entertainment. Also where Julius Caesar was assasinated. Up until 61 BCE there had never been a permanent theater in the city of Rome. Prior to this temporary wooden theaters would be constructed for festivals and other types of performance. But Pompey, upon returning to Rome in the late 60s BCE having swept the entire mediterranean sea clean of pirates and fresh off victories over king Mithridates of Pontus he decided that he deserved better. To celebrate he decided to build Rome’s first permanent stone theater
- Seating capacity estimates range from 10,000 to 40,000
- This is a digital reconstruction where they have photoshopped a picture of an actor in Roman garb and shown him in the height context he would have had in the building Also, notice the three doors in the scaenae frons (façade to the stage house) Comedies were set on the street with three doors Can we imagine what it would have been like performing in this sort of world? And does it make you revisit the idea of spectacle? What place do you think spectacle has in theater? Is it something that you think is overrated? Misused? Underappreciated? Do you think spectacle can be meaningful? How would you like to see spectacle explored onstage in your ideal future work or as an audience member?
- One last bit of context: theater of pompey model sized out to the current google street view today Note the curved structure of the buildings on the left, which mimics the curvature of the ancient theater. The remains of the four temples and part of the curia are on the right, and the road cuts off exactly where it did in ancient times.
- Two other venues to consider used for ancient roman paratheatricals Seated 150,000 spectators 2,037 feet in length The Circus was Rome's largest venue for ludi, public games connected to Roman religious festivals
- (ask) what sorts of theatricals happened here? Gladiatorial contests Naumachaie Venationes Executions
- Gladiator “gladius” means sword Mostly slaves Popular between 1st c. BCE and 2nd c. CE Possibility of retiring wealthy Women gladiators 60-200 CE Few survived more than 10 matches Average life expectancy: 27 yrs. “thosewho are about to die salute you” Only said once during an event in AD 52 on Lake Fucinus -- captives and criminals fated to die fighting during mock naval encounters—in the presence of the emperor Claudius. Despite its popularization in later times, the phrase is not recorded elsewhere in Roman history, and there is no indication that it was ever a customary salute. It was more likely an isolated appeal by desperate captives and criminals condemned to die, and noted by Roman historians in part for the unusual mass reprieve granted to the survivors.
- The first known naumachia was given by Julius Caesar in Rome in 46 BC on occasion of his quadruple triumph. After having a basin dug near the Tiber, capable of holding actual biremes, triremes and quinqueremes, he made 2000 combatants and 4000 rowers, all prisoners of war, fight. In 2 BC on the occasion of the inauguration of the Temple of Mars Ultor ("Mars the Avenger"), Augustus gave a naumachia based on Caesar's model. As cited in Res Gestæ (§ 23), he created a basin on the right bank of the Tiber where 3000 men, not counting rowers, fought in 30 vessels with rams and a number of smaller boats. Claudius gave a naumachia in 52 AD on a natural body of water, Fucine Lake, to celebrate the completion of drainage work and tunneling on the site. The combatants were prisoners who had been condemned to death. Suetonius' account, written many years after the event, has them salute the emperor with the phrase"morituri te salutant" ("those who are about to die salute you"). There is no evidence that this form of address was used on any occasion other than this single naumachia.[1] The naumachia was thus a bloodier show than gladiatorial combat, which consisted of smaller engagements and where the combat did not necessarily end with the death of the losers. More exactly, the appearance of naumachia is closely tied and only slightly earlier than that other spectacle, "group combat", which did not pit single combatants against one another, but rather used two small armies. There again, the combatants were frequently those on death row and did not have the specialized training of true gladiators. Caesar, creator of the naumachia, simply had to transpose the same principle to another environment. Through the choreography of the combat, the naumachia had the ability to represent historical or pseudo-historical themes. Each of the fleets participating represented a maritime power of Ancient Greece or the Hellenistic east: Egyptians and the Tyrians for Caesar’s naumachia, Persians and Athenians for that of Augustus, Sicilians and Rhodeans for that of Claudius. It required significantly greater resources than other such entertainments, and as such these spectacles were reserved for exceptional occasions, closely tied to celebrations of the emperor, his victories and his monuments. The specific nature of the spectacle as well as the historical themes borrowed from the Greek world are closely tied to the term naumachia. This word, a phonetic transcription of the Greek word for a naval battle (ναυμαχία / naumakhía), has since come to also refer to the large artificial basins created for them.
- Rome was fine with a new god, but Rome objected to Christians not worshiping the Roman gods as well – in particular, not worshipping the Roman Emperor AS a god. Christians who refused to recant by performing ceremonies to honour the gods would meet with severe penalties; Roman citizens were exiled or condemned to a swift death by beheading. Slaves, foreign-born residents and lower classes were liable to be put to death by wild beasts as a public spectacle The earliest Christian martyrs, tortured and killed by Roman officials enforcing worship of the emperors, won so much fame among their co-religionists that others wished to imitate them to such an extent that a group presented themselves to the governor of Asia, declaring themselves to be Christians, and calling on him to do his duty and put them to death. He executed a few, but as the rest demanded it as well, he responded, exasperated, "You wretches, if you want to die, you have cliffs to leap from and ropes to hang by." This attitude was sufficiently widespread for Church authorities to begin to distinguish sharply "between solicited martyrdom and the more traditional kind that came as a result of persecution” Christianity was popular with slaves and poor people and grew in popularity in spite of being illegal and dangerous for three centuries. --313 CE the emperor Constantine made Christianity legal and in 393 any other religion became illegal. At this point theater becomes a target --it is associated with ”pagan” gods --it was licentious and sacrilegious --martyrdom was a paratheatrical entertainment This is going to change things in the era to come
- The emperor Diocletian split the empire in half to make this massive political entity easier to govern. In 330 the emperor Constantine moved the capitol of the Roman Empire to a city he had built on the Bosporous and named after himself. In 395 the east/west split became permanent After many attacks from the Goths and the Huns the western half of it fell apart – usually dated from 476 CE
- Late Antiquity is a term that describes the time of transition from classical antiquity to the Middle Ages in mainland Europe, the Mediterranean world, and the Middle East between the 2nd and 8th centuries AD. Generally, it can be thought of as from the end of the Roman Empire's Crisis of the Third Century (c. 235 – 284) to, in the East, the period of early Islam (7th – 9th centuries), following the Muslim conquests in the mid-7th century. In the West the end was earlier, with the start of the Early Medieval period typically placed in the 6th century, or earlier on the Western edges of the empire. The Roman Empire underwent considerable social, cultural and organizational changes Migrations of Germanic tribes disrupted Roman rule from the late 4th century onwards, culminating in the eventual collapse of the Empire in the West in 476, replaced by the so-called barbarian kingdoms. The resultant cultural fusion of Greco-Roman, Germanic and Christian traditions formed the foundations of the subsequent culture of Europe. The general decline of population, technological knowledge and standards of living in Europe during this period became the archetypal example of societal collapse for writers from the Renaissance until recent times. As a result of this decline, and the relative paucity of historical records from Europe in particular, the period between the fall of the Empire and the Middle Ages became known as the Dark Ages, a term displaced in most current periodisations by the introduction of "Late Antiquity". And that’s what we’re about to start exploring! Bye rome!