but that number later increased to 15. Contrasting with the
relatively large number of performers needed for a chorus,
Greek playwrights usually had no more than three actors to
perform all the speaking roles. Because a play might have
more than three speaking parts, actors oft en had to play
more than one. One reason that actors could perform both
male and female roles is that they wore masks. Evidence from
ancient sculpture and pottery indicates that these masks had
lifelike features and hair. Masks for comedy and satyr plays
oft en had humorous or grotesque touches such as highly
arched eyebrows or grinning mouths.
Th e players wore costumes appropriate for their roles (for
example, as kings, queens, warriors, or mourners). Euripides
became notorious for dressing his downtrodden heroes and
heroines in ragged clothing. Th e costumes worn in comedies of
the fi ft h century b.c.e. must have been spectacular. During this
period spectators saw choruses dressed as ants, birds, clouds,
wasps, and many other improbable beings or creatures.
Tragedies rarely dealt with historical subject matter—Ae-
schylus’ Persians is an exception—but instead were usually de-
rived from mythology. Tragedians dramatized events from the
lives of mythical fi gures such as Achilles, Agamemnon, Medea,
Oedipus, and Orestes but used these mythological events as a
platform for examining issues that concerned their audiences,
such as war, the nature of justice, relationships between the
sexes, and the relationship of human beings to the gods.
At the City Dionysia playwrights concluded their dra-
matic off erings with a satyr play, satyrs being creatures usually
depicted as part human and part goat or horse. In satyr plays
the chorus typically dressed as satyrs. Because satyrs were very
fond of wine and sexual activity, the plays oft en relied heavily
on jokes about wine and drunkenness, as well as sexual refer-
ences. Our knowledge of these works is limited because only
one complete satyr play (Euripides’ Cyclops) has survived. We
do, however, possess about 400 lines from Sophocles’ Tra c k e r s
and short fragments from many other satyr plays.
Comedy (from the Greek word komoidia, “revel song”)
varied more than tragedy in its subject matter and content.
Comic poets sometimes put a humorous spin on mythological
fi gures or events, but in the fi ft h century b.c.e. the Athenian
comic poets also poked fun at local politics and politicians
and at the social or intellectual trends of the day. By the end
of that century, however, political and topical humor began
to disappear. Aristophanes’ Ecclesiazusae and Plutus, staged
between 393 and 388 b.c.e., contain fewer references to actual
persons than his earlier plays and also have diminished cho-
ral roles. By the end of the fourth century b.c.e. the chorus’s
function seems to have been reduced to performing a stan-
dard set of songs serving as mere interludes between acts.
Aft er Aristophanes, comedy focused more on life in the
Greek home. Roles became stereotyped: the worried father,
prodigal son, meddling slave, innocent maiden, prostitute,
braggart warrior. Again, our knowledge aft er the fi ft h cen-
tury b.c.e. is limited because only one or two works, from
Menander, have survived in anything resembling complete
form. Still, hundreds of fragments from Menander and many
other comic playwrights of the fourth century and later sup-
plement our understanding. Additionally, we have some two
dozen complete plays from the Roman comic poets Plautus
and Terence, who modeled their plays on those of Menander
and other poets who composed in his style.ROME
BY KIRK H. BEETZ
Much about Roman drama and theater is unknown. Most of
the plays have been lost, much of Roman drama was spon-
taneous and not written down, and for a long time theater
buildings were temporary, erected for a particular occasion
and then taken down. Roman theater began as part of festi-
vals, usually honoring gods and goddesses but sometimes cel-
ebrating military victories. Until the development of mimes,
actors were only men, who wore masks that represented the
characters they played; they not only spoke their lines but
sang and danced as well. Even though the performances
might celebrate gods, performers soon discovered that they
could win audiences with comic sketches and vulgar humor.
It is not known exactly when Greek drama began to infl u-
ence Roman drama, but during the 400s b.c.e. some actors
put on Greek plays, with comedies being more popular than
tragedies. Th ey performed on temporary stages that were usu-
ally made of wood, though one stage used in Rome in the fi rst
century b.c.e. was recorded as having been made of marble,
glass, and wood. Th ese temporary theaters oft en had no seats,
and audiences had to stand, but as the performances increased
in popularity, builders included benches that rose in tiers like
those in Greek theaters. Th e stage was usually broad. In front
of it was the orchestra, where choruses and musicians were
placed. At its back were openings that could simulate doors to
buildings. By the mid-200s b.c.e. vast painted cloth backdrops
were hung over t he back of t he stage to indicate settings for t he
action. Some of these backdrops were so well done that they
gave the appearance of depth for background objects, while
objects in the foreground seemed to thrust out over the stage.
All Roman theaters were open air until 69 b.c.e., when a spon-
sor of theatricals, Quintus Lutatius Catulus, added a vela, a
linen covering forming an awninglike roof for a theater.
Th e works of most Roman playwrights are lost, but those
of Plautus (254–184 b.c.e.) have survived. He was a former ac-
tor and failed businessman who wrote plays to earn a living.
Th us he catered to the desires of the paying public as much as
he could. Like other Roman playwrights he borrowed plots
from Greek plays and modifi ed them for Roman audiences.
His plays were oft en musical comedies, fi lled with music and
lyrics he had composed. His audiences loved the variety in
his plays, which included scheming slaves, braggart soldiers,
pimps, prostitutes, bossy wives, and naive lovers. So success-
ful was Plautus that his plays were performed to the end of
the Roman Empire, long aft er stage plays had otherwise lost
their popularity.drama and theater: Rome 335