Athletics, Leisure, and Entertainment in Ancient Rome

Introduction

If you were a typical Roman it meant that most of your life revolved around negotium (Latin for business and work) but you could also probably find time for otium ( Latin for leisure and play) and these activity's ranged from hunting and fishing to the theater. I am going to focus on the theater and public entertainment.

Roman theaters were found all throughout the empire and some of them still stand today.They were made so the citizens of the roman empire could see numerous events in there down time, throughout the land. Roman theaters were built in all areas of the empire from medieval-day Spain, to the Middle East.There were two types of buildings that the Romans would use for these events there was amphitheater and the theater and they both served different purposes.

The amphitheater and the theater had

entirely different structures, with specific layouts that lend to the different events they held. example, Amphitheaters did not need superior acoustics, unlike those provided by the structure of a Roman theater

These buildings were semi-circular

, with minor differences depending on the region in which they were constructed. The scaenae frons was the high back wall of the stage floor, supported by columns.The proscaenium was a wall that supported the front edge of the stage with ornately decorated niches off to the sides. The theater itself was divided into the stage (orchestra) and the seating section (auditorium). Vomitoria or entrances and exits were made available to the audience. The auditorium was not roofed, rather, awnings (vela) could be pulled overhead to provide shelter from rain or sunlight depending on the scale of the theatre .

Plays

And

playwrights

The theatre of ancient Rome was a diverse and interesting art form, ranging from festival performances of street theater to acrobatics to serious tradgedys. The first important works of Roman literature were the tragedies and comedies that Livius Andronicus wrote from 240 BC. Theatre spread west across Europe, around the Mediterranean and reached England. Roman, theatre was more varied, extensive and sophisticated than that of any culture before it. It remained popular to the end, by the mid 4th century AD.

His comedies are the earliest surviving intact works in Latin literature. It is believed that he was born in Sarsina, a small town in Emilia Romagna in northern Italy. Possibly Plautus worked as a stage-carpenter or scene-shifter in his early years, this could of been what inspired his love for theathre. Plautus's comedies are mostly adapted from Greek ones for a Roman audience, and are often based directly on the works of the Greek playwrights. He reworked the Greek texts to give them a flavour that would appeal to the local Roman audiences. Plautus wrote around 130 plays, of which 20 have survived, making him the most prolific ancient dramatist in terms of surviving work. Critics have often judged Plautus's work as crude; yet his influence on later literature is impressive—especially on two literary giants, Shakespeare and Molière.

The End

• Banham, Martin (1995). The Cambridge Guide to Theatre. Cambridge University Press.
• Richard C. Beacham (1991). The Roman Theatre and Its Audience. Harvard University Press.
• Oscar Brockett; Franklin J. Hildy (2002). History of the Theatre.
• Mark Wilson Jones. Principles of Roman Architecture. New Haven: Yale University Press,
• K. E. Ros. "The Roman theater at Carthage (the theater's substructures, plan and the identification of architectural elements)". American Journal of Archaeology v. 100
• Richard Allan Tomlinson. "Theatres (Greek and Roman), structure
• Constance Campbell. "The Uncompleted Theatres of Rome
• http://books.google.com.br/books?id=Bt6NSL-F2iwC&lpg=PA109
• Colchester Museums official website
• Roman Theatre of Verulamium official website

Theater and Entertainment

in ancient rome

bibliography

Notice how its carved out of a hill

• The parasitus or parasite lives only for himself. He is often seen begging for meals or being refused them. He lies for his own gain. He dresses in a long, black or gray garment with long, doubled sleeves.
• The adulescens was the hero, who is young, rich, love-struck and not too brave. He tends to express sorrow over his fate and requires backup. Another character often has to take action on his behalf. His father is often the senex or old man, whom he fears, but does not respect. He wears a dark wig and his clothes are usually crimson.
• The virgo (young maiden) is the love interest of the adulescens, but does not get much stage time. She is beautiful and virtuous with little personality. She is treated as a prize.

Examples

something that i found interesting is that in plays they had stock characters which was just a universal set of characters used in plays that dressed the same, talked the same, and even had similar personalty.

Stock characters

Often considered Plautus' greatest play. The title is sometimes translated as The Brothers Menaechmus or The Two Menaechmuses. It is a story of two twin brothers who were separated at young age and when they are both adults one of the brothers goes in search of the other one He arrives in Epidamnus, unaware that his twin brother is also there. Here, the brother is first shown to be, with good cause, the despair of his jealous wife. He steals his wifes mantle to give to a prostitute who lives next door. He gives the mantle to the prostitute and suggests that they have diner together. Meanwhile, the other twin is about to give up on his search when the same prostitute that his brother had arranged diner with sees him and thinks that this is him, and is confused when she tells him to come in for dinner.He thinks what could be better than a dinner with a beutiful girl and goes in. At the end of the diner the prostitute gives the mantle back feeling bad about taking it and he takes it in the confused state he is in. A friend of the brother that lives in the town then sees him leaving, and gets jealous that he was not included in the deal. He then runs to tell the wife what is going on. His wife then runs out to find her husband but runs into the twin and thinks that its her husband with her mantle around his arm. Both are confused when the twin says some lady just gave it to him and he didn't steal it. He then runs to avoid getting into a fight with the father. Awhile after , the husband comes back and is arrested.

but just then the slave of the traveling twin shows up and over powers the guard, and asks for his fredom as a reward he says he doesn't know him. The slave then leaves to get money that he was safeguarding. The brother then gos to the prositutes house bumping into his brother then huging commences

Roman actors had bad reputations and their morals challenged even the decadence of Roman society. Their performances could be lewd, highly sexual and offensive, and they sometimes even appeared naked on stage and engaged in sexual acts. As expected, some emperors were critical of them and took certain measures in an attempt to counteract their influence, Emperor Tiberius would not allow people of the stage to have any contact with the upper classes, it must of been hard to avoid an entire class of citizens ,but howevever these rules changed frequently .

In the early roman republic (before Juilus Ceaser) women never entered the profession, it was considered inappropriate, and the female parts where played by men dressed up as females. However, in the Imperial period ( after Julius Ceaser) , a number of women became famous actresses, and earned reputations as infamous as their male counterparts. one of the Emperor Nero’s concubines, Acte, became a famous actress, and we think actors and actresses today have to much power

actors

Women in Acting

Notice these are the pilars of the

scanae fron in the backround

Menaechmi

(Titus Maccius Plautus )

Platus

Theatre

Standard floor plan of a Roman theatre.

Interior view of the auditorium:

1) Scaenae fron

2) Porticus post scaenam 3) Pulpitum

4) Proscaenium

5) Orchestra

6) Cavea

7) Aditus maximus

8) Vomitorium