Nothing to do with Bacchus: histories of Roman theatre

Abstract

This project is part of a wider research on the images of theater in ancient Rome. In this phase, I intend to consider the way history of dramatic art was told in selected texts from the Augustean era, a time when festivals (including the ludi scaenici) "set the rhythm" of the city (Brandt; Iddeng 2012, p. 2). In this context it is amazing to realize the divergences among Horace's (Ep. 2.1, 139-213), Vergil's (Georg. 2.371-396), and Livy's (Liv. 7.2) accounts on the origin and development of theatre in Roman civilization. Despite the large attention already given to such passages, an appreciation of their poetic and rhetorical resources and of their effects in the context of the respective works is still necessary. Instead of searching the right version among such accounts, the investigation intends to contribute to a more precise definition of their meaning, gaps and limits, as well as to a reflection on associations among: a) theater, nature and agriculture; b) festivals, culture, religion; c) dramatic art and historiography; d) dramatic art and carmina. (AU)