Vocab 1
What did gladiators do?
Fought each other and wild animals.
Naumachina
Floor flooded with water to mock navy battles
Circus
An oblong arena
What were the years of the Republic?
500BCE-27BCE
What were the years of the Empire?
27BCE-476AD—The Empire
Coliseum
A famous amphitheater in Rome
Closet Dramas
Plays not meant to be performed in front of an audience
Where was Circus Maximus and how many people did it hold?
Rome, 180,000
What type of events were held in a circus vs. amphitheater?
Circus: Chariot Races
Amphitheatre: Gladiator battles, Naumachina, and wild animal battles
Theatres sat how many people?
Between 10,000 and 40,000
Mime
Any of the following:
-Female roles were played by women
–Romans were the first to use women on stage
–Actors did not wear masks
–Subjects were drawn from urban life
–Language was frequently indecent
Pantomime
Any of the following:
-A silent, interpretive dance similar to mime today
–Performed by a lone actor who played many roles indicated by a mask with a closed mouth
–There was a chorus that narrated the story
–Story lines were serious and drawn from mythology
Scaenae frons
Permanent scene house (rather than skene in Greece)
Where and when was the first theater built?
Pompei in 75 BCE
Romans added what to the theater stage?
Curtains
Pulpitum
Stage that was raised 5 feet above the level of the orchestra and reached by staircases
Vomitoria
Covered passages into the theatres (similar to Greek paradoi)
SURPISE! Not vocab. What was the most popular form of entertainment?
Chariot Races
Difference between Greek and Roman comedies
Any of the following:
-Roman tragedies were mostly translations of Greek tragedies. They were not as important to Roman theatre history as comedy was
In Roman:
–The chorus was abandoned
–The musical elements associated with the chorus were scattered throughout the play
–All of the action took place on the street
–The plays dealt with affairs of the well-to-do middle class and every day domestic affairs
Difference between Greek and Roman masks
Any of the following:
-Masks for tragedy were greatly exaggerated (as opposed to those from Greek comedies)
-Some masks were designed with one cheerful and one serious side as a way of indicating a character’s change in mood without a change of masks
Auleum
-Ceiling called that jutted out over the stage. It did not cover the audience or the orchestra
fabula Atellana
Any of the following:
-stock characters (characters that represent a stereotyped role—the beggar, the miser, etc—and remained the same from theatre to theatre
-Music and dance
-Emphasized buffoonery, trickery and cheating
-Rural settings
-Short farces (slapstick comedy) that became popular around the 1st century BCE
ludi Romani
Roman Festivals
Roman Costumes
Any of the following:
-Everyday dress. If it was a Greek comedy, Greek costumes were worn (chiton, kothornos, onkos). If it was a Roman comedy, Roman costumes were worn
-Roman dress was typically a toga—actually a cloak
3 Roman Playwrites and 3 Roman plays
Playwrites: Plautus, Terence, Seneca
Plays: The Trojan Women, The Pot of Gold, The Brothers