Rome in the Footsteps of an XVIIIth Century Traveller

Non vides, quemadmodum theatra consonent, quotiens aliqua dicta sunt, quae publice adgnoscimus et consensu vera esse testamur?
(Have you not noticed how the theatre reechoes whenever any words are spoken whose truth we appreciate generally and confirm unanimously?)
Seneca - Epistles to Lucilius - 108 - translation by Richard M. Gunmere
This page is about a 2024 temporary exhibition at Museo dell'Ara Pacis displaying some 240 works of art related to the ancient theatrical world which were loaned by Italian and foreign museums. More than 1,000 monumental theatres were built in the Roman Empire: the icon at the top of the page is related to a section showing those of Roman towns of Asia Minor, namely Priene, Miletus, Euromos, Kaunos, Telmessos, Tlos, Xanthos, Letoon, Patara, Antiphellos, Simena, Myra, Phaselis, Termessos, Perge, Aspendos and Side.

Musei Capitolini: (left) relief depicting a dancing maenad, a follower of Dionysus, Ist century AD from an original of the Vth century BC (from Trofei di Mario, a monumental fountain); (right) relief depicting a scene of initiation to the cult of Dionysus (Augustan age - from Horti di Mecenate)

For if it were not to Dionysos that they made a procession and sang the shameful phallic hymn, they would be acting most shamelessly. But Hades is the same as Dionysos in whose honour they go mad and rave.
Heraclitus (fragment D.K. 15 - translation by John Burnet)
Acting, singing and dancing in ancient Athens originated from the ritual processions in honour of Dionysus. They were an expression of thanksgiving for the fertility and the agricultural abundance, but also of temporary licence for the drunkenness and the licentiousness. During this festival, phalloi made of wood were carried; dancing and singing actors wore strapped huge artificial phalluses as part of their costumes. Dionysus was depicted as a patron in many theatres (e.g. at Aspendos), but also in many sarcophagi (e.g. at Nepi and near Porta Portese) because he was born twice, thus he was regarded as the god of Resurrection.

(left) Museo Archeologico Regionale di Siracusa: mask of an old satyr from Centuripe, an ancient town in the interior of Sicily (IIIrd century BC); (right) Musei Capitolini: VIth century BC terracotta antefix portraying another old satyr which was found near S. Antonio Abate

Satyrs were half-human and half-goat followers of Dionysus who sang and danced in the processions. Silenus, one of them, was the tutor and companion of the God. He was significantly older than the other satyrs and he was usually drunken. He became a character of early theatre plays and his mask was a popular subject (see a sarcophagus from Porto showing children playing with a mask of Silenus and an amazing statue of the Albani collection).

Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli: Krater of Pronomos (Vth century BC)

Epic poetry and Tragedy, as also Comedy, Dithyrambic poetry, and most flute-playing and lyre-playing, are all, viewed as a whole, modes of "mimesis" (imitation/representation). But at the same time they differ from one another in three ways, either by a difference of kind in their means, or by differences in the objects, or in the manner of their imitations.
Aristotle - Poetics - translated by Ingram Bywater
Aristotle listed the different kinds of theatrical performances of his time (dithyramb is an ancient Greek hymn and dance performed in honour of Dionysus) which all were developed out of the Dionysiac procession. This very fine krater was made in a workshop of Athens, but it was found in southern Italy. The detail shown above depicts some of the performances mentioned by Aristotle. Pronomos is the name of the flute-player, who must have been a famous soloist. He is seated on a klismos, an elegant chair and he wears a costume. Charinos, a lyre-player, stands naked next to him and he seems to be asking something. Behind Pronomos, Nikoleos performs a sikinnis, an orgiastic dance. His right foot exceeds the frame of the scene, a very sophisticated trick to make more realistic the scene (see an example in Baroque sculpture).

Busts of the three great Greek tragedians (Roman copies from Greek originals): (left) Sophocles (c. 495-406 BC - Farnese Collection); (centre) Aeschylus (c. 525-456 BC - Musei Capitolini); (right) Euripides (c. 480-406 BC - Musei Capitolini)

Only after a long series of changes the movement of Tragedy stopped on its attaining to its natural form. (1) The number of actors was first increased to two by Aeschylus, who curtailed the business of the Chorus, and made the dialogue, or spoken portion, take the leading part in the play. (2) A third actor and scenery were due to Sophocles. (3) Tragedy acquired also its magnitude. Discarding short stories and a ludicrous diction, (..) it assumed (..) a tone of dignity; and its metre changed then from trochaic to iambic. (..) The iambic, we know, is the most speakable of metres, as is shown by the fact that we very often fall into it in conversation. Aristotle
Aeschilus created the trilogy, a series of three tragedies that told one continuous story. One such trilogy was the Oresteia, consisting of Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers and The Eumenides. These plays took a full day to perform, from sunrise to sunset. At the end of the day a satyr play would be performed giving the audience something light-hearted to lift their spirits after the dramatic events of the tragedies.
Sophocles increased the complexity of the plot, and developed a range of characters with whom the audience could identify. Although Sophocles added more members to the chorus it became less important in explaining the plot and far greater emphasis was placed on character development and conflict.
Euripides introduced realism. The hero in his tragedies is no longer the resolute character that Aeschylus and Sophocles portray in their plays, but someone insecure and troubled by internal conflicts. Euripides used female protagonists (Andromache, Phaedra and Medea) as the heroine of some of his plays.
You may wish to see the ancient Greek theatres of Syracuse and Epidaurus.

Archaeological Museum of Lipari: IVth century BC very small terracotta theatre masks; almost of all of them depict characters of the Greek tragedy and comedy

These small masks were found inside tombs, something which puzzled archaeologists. Evidence of a theatre in the island has not been found, but even if there were one, it is unlikely the inhabitants of Lipari had so many occasions to attend performances. The small masks have not been found in other sites of Italy and Greece, so it seems that they were purposefully made for the tombs of Lipari. They might have been placed in the tombs as an offer to Dionysus, as God of the Afterlife. Some of them show a small hole at the top which suggest they were hanged as oscilla (see an oscillum depicting a theatrical mask). You may wish to see some very fine vases from Lipari.

(left) Museo Archeologico Regionale di Siracusa: Vth century BC mask from Megara Hyblaea, a town north of Syracuse; (right) Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Taranto: IInd century BC mask of Maccus, a character of a type of farce that originated in Italy by 300 BC

As for Comedy, it is an imitation of men worse than the average; worse, however, not as regards any and every sort of fault, but only as regards one particular kind, the Ridiculous, which is a species of the Ugly. The Ridiculous may be defined as a mistake or deformity not productive of pain or harm to others; the mask, for instance, that excites laughter, is something ugly and distorted without causing pain. Aristotle
Maccus was a most popular clown and the leading character in many early Italian farces where he played the role of a silly glutton. The development of Greek comedy is mainly due to Menander (342 - 290 BC) (see a Ist century AD relief depicting him holding a theatrical mask).

Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Taranto: IIIrd century BC cast and painted terracotta statuettes of actors, dancers and jugglers

At Taranto (ancient Tarentum) and its environs archaeologists found a large variety of small statues of actors inside tombs. Similar to the masks of Lipari they were a votive gift to Dionysus. It is amazing to notice that buffoonish characters were preferred including some female ones (although the actors were all men). They were most likely played by street artists (see a famous mosaic from Pompeii portraying street musicians wearing masks). The image used as background for this page shows the face of another statuette.

Video with a modern performance of "Aulularia", a play by Titus Maccius Plautus (250-184 BC)

The title literally means The Little Pot, but some translators provide The Pot of Gold, and the plot revolves around a pot of gold which the miserly protagonist, Euclius, jealously guards.
Actors always wore a mask and an anecdote reported by Pliny shows how they identified themselves with their preferred mask: The most enviable case of a peaceful end is one recorded by our forefathers, that of Marcus Ofilius Hilarus: he was an actor in comedy, and having had a considerable success with the public on his birthday and while giving a party, when dinner was served called for a hot drink in a tankard, and at the same time picked up the mask that he had worn on that day and while gazing at it transferred the wreath from his own head to it, and in this attitude lay quite stiff without anybody noticing, until the guest on the next couch warned him that his drink was getting cold.
Pliny - Historia Naturalis - Book VIII: 54 - translation by H. Rackham

Teatro Argentina: Colossal masks from Teatro di Marcello: (left) mask of The Young Man with Curly Hair; (right) mask of The False Virgin or Pseudokore, a young female character of Greek "New Comedy"

The masks decorated the keystones of the arches of Teatro di Marcello, similar to those at the Amphitheatre of Capua and those at Villa Adriana. The masks portray long-lasting scenic characters, tragic, comic and grotesque which can be regarded as the forefathers of many characters in modern theatre, from the misanthropic old man to the seductive young man, from the shrewd servant to the young lovers hindered by different social conditions.
Theatre masks were made of stiffened and painted linen so none have survived to the present day. We only know what they looked like because theatre was so popular in Greek and Roman times that representations of actors and masks were made in other materials such as terracotta, stone and bronze and were depicted on gems and in paintings and mosaics (see a mosaic at Musei Capitolini).

Museo Nazionale Romano: fresco from the theatre of Nemi (age of Emperor Caligula)

The fresco depicts a "dressing room" for the actors and shows the coturni, the tall footwear worn by tragic actors, the caligae, the military footwear after which Caligula is named, a manuscript book and a flute. Drapes placed among low columns and pillars defined the space where each actor prepared himself for the performance. You may wish to see the backstage of the Theatre of Bosra, one of the best preserved Roman theatres.

Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli: Ist century AD lifesize terracotta statues of tragic actors from Pompeii (Regio VIII; Insula 2; N. 22249)

The statues come from the workshop of a craftsman in Pompeii and they were never exhibited in Rome. The mosaics and paintings of Pompeii have provided a lot of information on the Roman theatre in the Ist century AD. Frescoes depict scenes from the tragedies of Medea (Euripides) and Agamemnon (Aeschylus), a mosaic portrays a theatrical entrepreneur and his company, theatrical masks decorate floors and walls.
The exhibition includes an interesting tombstone from Aquileia with a long inscription celebrating Bassilla, a female mime. This type of theatrical performance became popular in the imperial age and it was not reserved to men.

Villa Pamphilj: IIIrd century AD funerary relief of a young poet

The relief depicts the funerary celebrations for Flavius Valerianus, a young poet or playwriter who holds a medal and wears a laurel crown. Behind his bust is a small shrine with primitive figures of his ancestors. as they were kept in the atria of patrician houses and exhibited on the occasion of a funeral. A lyre player is depicted next to a reciter holding a scroll. In the middle to the left, the main tragic hero is dressed in a long-sleeved robe that girds under the breast. He wears a mask with long twisted locks and he holds a club in his left hand. A young actor follows to the left holding a torch. Between them a boy plays a drum. Some funerary ceremonies had hired people to attend the funeral, as well as hired people to play music, and hired people to be a form of audience, that would serve to enhance the commemoration of the dead.
The inscription says that the father of Flaviu Valerianus paid the funeral and he wished not to to have lived to suffer such a grief (quam vidisse tantum scelus).

Musei Vaticani: IInd century AD mosaic showing musicians and dancers which was found in 1711 near S. Sabina and modern reproductions of their instruments

You may wish to see the musical instruments which were used by the Romans at funerals, at gladiatorial games and at festivals of Isis. Based on the number of works of art, it appears that there was a decline in the popularity of theatrical performances during the IIIrd century AD. Villa del Casale in Sicily is dated late IIIrd and early IVth century AD and it retains the floor mosaics of over 50 rooms. Theatre-related subjects are absent whereas many mosaics depict chariot races and hunting scenes. St. Augustine was strongly opposed to theatre performances and he invited the citizens of Bulla in Tunisia to close their theatre. The Byzantine emperors issued a series of decrees which led to the end of theatrical performances, but Theodora, Justinian's second wife was a former actress.