THE: Lesson - The Origins of Roman Theater: Rome

The remains of a Roman theater in Jordan.The Origins of Roman Theater: Rome

Now that we've established the origins of Greek theater, we can turn our attention to the subject at hand: Roman theater. We find a theme in Roman culture: a lot of the things we call "Roman culture" appear to be copied from the Greeks. In fact, as Rome was conquering Greece, there was a massive cultural shift in Rome. 

There's even a famous quote from the poet Horace about this change:

Graecia capta ferum victorem cepit, et artes intulit agresti Latio
Conquered Greece took captive her savage conqueror and brought her arts into rustic Latium

Rustic, if you were not aware, has the same general connotation as rural - Horace was basically calling Rome "country" before the conquest of Greece!

Image note: in the image to the right, you can see the remains of a Roman theater in the modern-day country of Jordan (the Romans called this region Asia Minor). As Rome spread around the Mediterranean, they built theaters everywhere. These theaters were based on the original Greek style of theater. Would you have joined the crowds to watch a play in a theater like this? What limitations do you think there would have been (think of the people sitting in the back)?

Roman pre-Greek Culture

Greece was finally and fully conquered in 146 BCE. However, Greece was active in the Western Mediterranean stretching back to the 8th century BCE, which means the Romans and Greeks were in contact for centuries before this final conquest.

Despite this regular contact, there was a distinct Roman culture that pre-dated the influx of Greek culture. The earliest Romans are historically viewed as being practical. Romans are often portrayed as some mix between the Spartans (a warlike Greek city-state, known for being generally uninterested in "culture") and a group of Stoics (the philosophy of stoicism argues that one simply endures the hardships in life, while showing little emotional response - they just "deal with it"). Of course, any depiction like this ignores that the Romans, even before the Greek conquest, were a diverse and interesting culture.

As an example, the Roman religion (before they adopted Greek customs) was more practical than the Greek religion. Instead of having various tales of the actions of the gods like the Greeks, the Romans worshipped gods as needed. If you needed a good harvest, you made a sacrifice (or paid for a sacrifice) to the harvest god. If you needed to get married, you made a sacrifice to the god or goddess in charge of marriage. But to say that the Romans had no culture before they conquered the Greeks is obviously false - it just wasn't as "fun" as the Greek culture (fun here meaning: artistic and emotional).

Roman Cultural Connections to Greece

With this in mind, why in the world were the Romans so changed by their encounters with the Greeks? The answer, when you think about it, may be quite simple: it was a much more interesting culture. It's not that Roman culture was boring, but the same things that we find fascinating about Greek culture now (their art, their poetry, their drama, their religion, etc.) are exactly the things that intrigued the Roman mind.

One obvious example: the Romans were able to connect their pragmatic religion to the more flamboyant Greek religion. Connections were made between similar gods (Jupiter and Zeus, Mars and Ares, and so on), and stories about the exploits of those Greek gods were adopted for their Roman counterparts. By employing this more narrative mythology, Roman religion shifted to mirror the model of the superhuman gods of Greece.

The Romans also found value in the way the Greeks told their stories. Their poetry and literature were inspirational and we see this influence in the development of Latin literature in the 3rd century BCE. This tradition was very much modeled on the Greek tradition and included, as a major focus, drama. The earliest Latin literature, by poets like Livius Andronicus and Ennius, were plays and epic poems based on Greek models.

One final thing to consider: the 3rd century BCE was particularly impactful for Rome. Rome had expanded and now controlled most of Italy. This larger area of control allowed Rome to look outside of its terrestrial borders. Between conflicts with the Greeks and Phoenicians, this is a turning point in Roman history where it becomes a major power player in the Mediterranean. With this growing power came the desire to appear more refined and the Romans found the Greek model to be preferable and borrowed major features of that culture into their own.

Video Lesson

Because so much of the Roman dramatic tradition is based on their Greek counterparts, we've already learned the basics about drama. Let's watch this video to learn some of the specific details about Roman drama. After the video, you'll find a short practice quiz to check your understanding of Roman drama.

Video source: This video is provided through Crash Course, a division of PBS. 
Content warning: adult themes, the use of alcohol, and violence are discussed in this video.

Practice Activity

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