Roman Comedy

This paper wants to demonstrate the not casual similarity between Plautus'Asinar-ia 205 and Terence's Andria 545 arguing for the possibility that Plautus'Asinaria 205 was interpolated. Diàbolo desidererebbe trascorrere un'altra notte d'amore con Filenio, figlia di Cleereta, la lena. Pur-troppo non ha abbastanza soldi per appagare il suo desiderio e dunque viene lasciato alla porta. La sua rabbia trova sfogo verbale, prima in un monologo e poi in dialogo con la stessa Cleereta: il tono lamentoso ed enfatico di Diàbolo è facilmente sopraffatto dalla logica utilitaristica della lenona. Ai vv. 204-207 Diàbolo le rimprovera incoerenza verbale: ora che lui non ha più un soldo, lei parla in modo ben diverso da allora quando le dava il denaro, diverso da allora quando cercava di raggirarlo con dolci e benevole parole. Di seguito si dà il testo di Leo 1895: aliam nunc mi orationem despoliato praedicas, longe aliam inquam praebes nunc atque olim quom dabam, 205 aliam atque olim quom illiciebas me ad te blande ac benedice. tum … Si tratta di una sezione di settenari trocaici; il v. 205 presenta qualche difficoltà di ordine metrico: se si accetta così come tràdito, bisogna ammettere due iati, certamente non frequenti in tr 7 (longe | aliam | inquam). Hurka (2010, 122) li giustifica su base contestuale, al fine cioè di isolare e dunque enfatizzare aliam. In alternativa, se non si ammette iato, il verso manca di un piede e si rende ne-cessario emendare: <linguam> praebes Vahlen (1882, 277), inquam <orationem> nunc Leo (1895, in app.), inquam <iniqua> praebes Danese (2004). Alcuni editori, invece, seguono Fleckeisen (1859) nell'espunzione del verso: questa drastica decisione, seguita per esempio da Ussing, Goe-tz/Loewe e Bertini, è giustificata anche sulla base della generale fattura del verso, una sorta di doppione esplicativo di 204. In effetti il v. 205 sembra non essere altro che un'aggiunta mal riuscita per rendere più esplicita l'opposizione fra presente e passato: se infatti si leggono i versi senza 205, mancherebbe, per così dire, un termine di opposizione: ora Cleereta si comporta male perché Diàbolo è ormai senza quat-trini (despoliatus), un tempo si comportava in ben altro modo … ma il perché, ovvero che Diàbolo un tempo era in grado di pagare, mancherebbe. Questa 'lacuna' si giustifica, però, nell'ottica argo-mentativa di Diàbolo, il cui scopo è di mettere in enfasi solo la prima delle due opposizioni, mentre costituisce nell'ottica di un generico copista/rieditore un ottimo stimolo di interpolazione. Scialbo

https://muse.jhu.edu/article/922568

This paper examines the performance dynamics of onstage texts in Plautus’ comedies. Examples of rare “epigraphic texts” are compared with the more common motif of in-play “perishable texts.” The perishable type were performed by actors as though varbatim, and transmit novel information to the audience. In contrast, epigraphic texts are paraphrased, and so require specific knowledge. Each kind of text thus does different dramatic work. The difference originates in the different material “entanglements” of each medium in the lives of ancient Italians. Therefore Plautus’ audiences understood comic theater through its extra-textual elements as much as through “the text” as we have it. To understand Roman comedy, scholars must also account for how ancient objects were entangled in Roman culture.

Surveys the king names that appear in Plautus's comedies and considers the geopolitics and history they appealed to in the audience, especially as compared with the king names and geography of the Life of Aesop, and in connection with the many stories of contemporary traveling comedians and their misadventures (sometimes fatal) at the courts of Hellenistic kings, as seen in Athenaeus and Machon.

Esta publicación no puede ser reproducida, ni total ni parcialmente, ni registrada en, o transmitida por, un sistema de recuperación de información, en ninguna forma ni por ningún medio, ya sea fotomecánico, fotoquímico, electrónico, por fotocopia o por cualquier otro, sin el permiso previo de la editorial. Todos los trabajos contenidos en este volumen han sido evaluados y corregidos por el sistema de peer review.

The theme that unites the first four papers in this collection (counting the two elements of the second paper as two separate papers for the purposes of this summary only) is the view of Geta as very much the nexus-figure for three different aspects of the play: he is by turns the willing and unwilling trickster of Demipho (with Phormio as his principal ally); he is also a devotee of the goddess Fortuna (his piety sits comfortably alongside that of Demipho: they may profitably be viewed as a composite character) to whom good luck deservedly accrues (in contrast to Phormio and Chremes, who personify those who either enjoy unmerited success – Phormio – or like Chremes get found out); and, finally, Geta is co-principal architect of the resolution of the two cousins' love entanglements (although he once more needs the assistance – this time unsought - of another character: Nausistrata). All four papers, looking at the play from the varied perspectives of plot, structure and linguistic choices, present mutually-supportive evidence for this interpretation.
The fifth (summarising) paper gathers together the specific evidence to substantiate the claim that the intention of Terence was to create a play to showcase the comedic potential of a parasite let loose in a plot dominated by chance and where all intrigues are ultimately confounded. It further develops the idea that the prologue and last scene of the play were tailored to one another so as to draw direct parallels between the alleged behaviour of Luscius Lanuvinus and Phormio. The sixth paper speculatively explores an obscure element of Terence's attack upon Luscius that continues to puzzle modern commentators. The seventh paper expands the examination of pietas beyond the religious aspect analysed in the third paper (the second part to the second paper listed above) to encompass familial and wider social pietas. It seeks to demonstrate that Terence handled this theme in a wholly consistent manner, with the parasite unequivocally depicted as a vir impius - rendering it implausible that Terence, apparently so dependent himself upon patronage, should have cast Phormio as anything other than a comic rogue who got lucky.
The principal conclusions from my analysis of Phormio can be summarised thus:
1. Terence employs ring-composition as a fundamental organising technique, founded upon the stage entrances at regular intervals of four of the characters: Demipho, Phormio, Chremes and Sophrona (see the summarising table at the end of the collection).
2. Terence uses word-tags to link connected themes/ideas. These include: postilla, ire pergam, ipse (with the specific meaning of dominus), heia, eu, attat & (when used by a male) pol. Also (integrating the prologue with the remainder of the play-text): lacesso and aequo animo.
3. The theme of pietas (or its lack) leading to both deserved and undeserved felicitas is another organising principle of the play: references to the gods and to religious observance are most certainly not just incidental add-ons.
4. There are several plausible explanations for the parasite Phormio getting star-billing in the prologue. He need not be - and in this play is not - the master of intrigue portrayed by some (most?) other commentators.
5. This play provides an excellent example of how the translation choices for just a few lines can transform the overall interpretation. And why translators need to situate their decisions within the wider academic debate, failing which they run the risk of misleading their audience.
6. It is a valid approach to interpret each of Terence's plays on an individual basis, given the small number he wrote and the insistence in the prologues upon originality. To focus on elements common to his corpus - or common to the even wider concept of a comoedia palliata - can lead to unwarranted (or at least unduly restrictive) conclusions.
7. In this specific play the prologue does form an integral part of the overall play-text (both in terms of the fundamental architecture of the play and as regards important thematic elements).
8. The structuring of this play raises fundamental questions as to the basis upon which Terence selected, and the degree to which he subsequently modified, his Greek original in this specific instance and, more generally, as regards his wider approach to his Greek source material. Terence did more than merely translate: he seems actively to have sought out plays, and (where appropriate) specific scenes from other Greek works where he deemed it appropriate, so as to develop various stock-characters from play to play and thereby to put his own stamp on a particular comedy. Modern scholarship generally supports the idea that Shakespeare adopted a somewhat similar approach to his source material in a number of plays.

Willing to challenge the classical tradition, Richlin (2005) adapted the Latin play Persa by Plautus to a contemporary context using American slang and pop culture. Richlin aims at making Roman comedy performable, popular and funny again whether onstage or in the classroom. Is her radical modernisation a form of domestication that is often criticized in translation studies for being unfaithful and unethical? Based upon a comparison between the original Latin text and Richlin's version, this paper questions the ethics of faithfulness which play a major role in translation terminology, a system determined by the traditional polarity between domestication and foreignization. By highlighting the ludic nature of Plautus' comedy (especially the ongoing joke with Greek culture and language), this paper argues that using modern transposition is a heavily Plautine strategy suitable for recovering the immediacy of comedy.

The paper aims at examining different types of talk represented in the plays by Plautus and Terence. To this end, it combines Goffman's participation framework with tools of Conversation Analysis, which serve to offer a more nuanced definition of speaking turns and the conversational floor. After discussing several types of footing within comedy dialogues, turns are differentiated from other strands of communicating: side comments (including theatrical asides), self-directed cries and backchannel talk. Moreover, verbal interactions in Plautus and Terence are analysed in relation to their floor structure and the kind of participation they entail for the interlocutors. Finally, the concepts here presented, as argued throughout the paper, help to revisit some of the existing accounts of verbal interaction in Roman comedy.

L'articolo si propone di esaminare i diversi modi di parlare rappresentati nelle opere di Plauto e Terenzio. A tal scopo, la teoria del quadro di partecipazione di Goffman viene combinata con strumenti di analisi conversazionale che servono a offrire una definizione un po' più elaborata dei turni e del piano (ing. floor) di conversazione. Dopo aver discusso i vari tipi di ancoraggio dialogico nelle commedie, i turni vengono differenziati dagli altri livelli di comunicazione: commenti secondari (compresi gli "a parte" teatrali), esclamazioni autoreferenziali ed espressioni di feedback. Inoltre, le interazioni verbali in Plauto e Terenzio vengono analizzate in relazione alla loro struttura del piano di conversazione e al tipo di partecipazione che instaurano con gli interlocutori. Infine, i fenomeni presentati, come sostenuto in tutto il lavoro, aiutano a chiarire alcune concezioni dell'interazione verbale nella commedia romana.

Tłumaczenie uhonorowano nagrodą miesięcznika Literatura na wiecie za najlepszy przekład poezji (2003).

Plaut (Titus Maccius Plautus), poeta rzymski z przełomu III i II wieku p.n.e. jest autorem 21 zachowanych komedii, które prezentują na scenie greckie środowisko i greckie stosunki społeczne. Komediopisarz chętnie korzystał z autorów greckiej komedii nowej, przejął od nich tematy, schemat intrygi i typy bohaterów, którym a priori były przypisane stałe cechy i  zawsze  ta  sama  rola w fabule.  Nie można jednak uznać komedii Plauta ani za plagiat (starożytni nie znali tego pojęcia), ani też za przekład, autor bowiem wykazał się ogromnym talentem i własną inwencją, a nierzadko nadawał swoim utworom rzymski koloryt. Ponieważ do końca XIX wieku utwory zaliczane do greckiej komedii nowej były zupełnie nieznane, można powiedzieć, że to właśnie Plaut do spółki z Terencjuszem, stanowili wzorzec kształtujący nowożytną komedię europejską.

Zasługą Plauta jest przede wszystkim dostarczenie  zbioru fabuł i intryg, a także galerii postaci – typów, wyposażonych w wady ludzkie, którym łatwo nadać kształt karykatury. Jego sztuki są niewyczerpanym źródłem śmiesznych chwytów, bastonad, przebrań, omyłek, teatru w teatrze, nieporozumień, qui pro quo oraz gier miłości, zazdrości i głupoty. W tym względzie można by powiedzieć, że Plaut stworzył komedię.

Tematem jego sztuk są zwykle perypetie lekkomyślnego lub niezaradnego młodzieńca, który stara się o względy wybranki swego serca. A ponieważ uczucie tych dwojga napotyka na różnego  rodzaju przeszkody, na scenie pojawia się sprytny niewolnik, który jako spiritus movens całej intrygi pomaga parze kochanków. Treścią komedii jest więc przeprowadzenie chytrze obmyślonego podstępu lub znalezienie wyjścia z trudnej sytuacji.

Bohaterami komedii Plauta są zawsze skonwencjonalizowane postaci, które  występują  jako typy przyporządkowane maskom, zwanym personae. Najczęściej pojawiające się w sztuce maski, czyli personae dramatis to: starzec, młodzieniec, panna lub hetera i oczywiście niewolnik.

O genialności Plauta świadczy przede wszystkim jego język, pełen kalamburów, żartów i gier słownych wykorzystujących podwójne znaczenie słów. Charakteryzuje go  wysoki stopień kolokwializacji, nie stroni też od wyzwisk i obelżywych przezwisk. Błędem jest jednak uważać łacinę komediopisarza za wulgarną lub pospolitą. Obfituje bowiem ona  w synonimy, metafory, komiczne zniekształcenia, wykorzystujące homonim, paronomazję i aliterację do osiągnięcia wspaniałych efektów dramatycznych i humorystycznych. W tej materii można rzec, że Plaut był prawdziwym mistrzem konceptu.

Wydanie obejmuje 6 komedii Plauta: tom I – Żołnierz samochwał, Amfitrion; tom II – Osły, Misa pełna złota; tom III – Dwie Bakchidy, Jeńcy.

Tłumaczenie uhonorowano nagrodą miesięcznika Literatura na wiecie za najlepszy przekład poezji (2003).

Plaut (Titus Maccius Plautus), poeta rzymski z przełomu III i II wieku p.n.e. jest autorem 21 zachowanych komedii, które prezentują na scenie greckie środowisko i greckie stosunki społeczne. Komediopisarz chętnie korzystał z autorów greckiej komedii nowej, przejął od nich tematy, schemat intrygi i typy bohaterów, którym a priori były przypisane stałe cechy i  zawsze  ta  sama  rola w fabule.  Nie można jednak uznać komedii Plauta ani za plagiat (starożytni nie znali tego pojęcia), ani też za przekład, autor bowiem wykazał się ogromnym talentem i własną inwencją, a nierzadko nadawał swoim utworom rzymski koloryt. Ponieważ do końca XIX wieku utwory zaliczane do greckiej komedii nowej były zupełnie nieznane, można powiedzieć, że to właśnie Plaut do spółki z Terencjuszem, stanowili wzorzec kształtujący nowożytną komedię europejską.

Zasługą Plauta jest przede wszystkim dostarczenie  zbioru fabuł i intryg, a także galerii postaci – typów, wyposażonych w wady ludzkie, którym łatwo nadać kształt karykatury. Jego sztuki są niewyczerpanym źródłem śmiesznych chwytów, bastonad, przebrań, omyłek, teatru w teatrze, nieporozumień, qui pro quo oraz gier miłości, zazdrości i głupoty. W tym względzie można by powiedzieć, że Plaut stworzył komedię.

Tematem jego sztuk są zwykle perypetie lekkomyślnego lub niezaradnego młodzieńca, który stara się o względy wybranki swego serca. A ponieważ uczucie tych dwojga napotyka na różnego  rodzaju przeszkody, na scenie pojawia się sprytny niewolnik, który jako spiritus movens całej intrygi pomaga parze kochanków. Treścią komedii jest więc przeprowadzenie chytrze obmyślonego podstępu lub znalezienie wyjścia z trudnej sytuacji.

Bohaterami komedii Plauta są zawsze skonwencjonalizowane postaci, które  występują  jako typy przyporządkowane maskom, zwanym personae. Najczęściej pojawiające się w sztuce maski, czyli personae dramatis to: starzec, młodzieniec, panna lub hetera i oczywiście niewolnik.

O genialności Plauta świadczy przede wszystkim jego język, pełen kalamburów, żartów i gier słownych wykorzystujących podwójne znaczenie słów. Charakteryzuje go  wysoki stopień kolokwializacji, nie stroni też od wyzwisk i obelżywych przezwisk. Błędem jest jednak uważać łacinę komediopisarza za wulgarną lub pospolitą. Obfituje bowiem ona  w synonimy, metafory, komiczne zniekształcenia, wykorzystujące homonim, paronomazję i aliterację do osiągnięcia wspaniałych efektów dramatycznych i humorystycznych. W tej materii można rzec, że Plaut był prawdziwym mistrzem konceptu.

Wydanie obejmuje 6 komedii Plauta: tom I – Żołnierz samochwał, Amfitrion; tom II – Osły, Misa pełna złota; tom III – Dwie Bakchidy, Jeńcy.

What might it mean to use books rather than read them?

This work examines the relationship between book use and forms of thought and theory in the early modern period. Drawing on legal, medical, religious, scientific and literary texts, and on how-to books on topics ranging from cooking, praying, and memorizing to socializing, surveying, and traveling, Carla Mazzio and Bradin Cormack explore how early books defined the conditions of their own use and in so doing imagined the social and theoretical significance of that use.

The volume addresses the material dimensions of the book in terms of the knowledge systems that informed them, looking not only to printed features such as title pages, tables, indexes and illustrations but also to the marginalia and other marks of use that actual readers and users left in and on their books. The authors argue that when books reflect on the uses they anticipate or ask of their readers, they tend to theorize their own forms. Book Use, Book Theory offers a fascinating approach to the history of the book and the history of theory as it emerged from textual practice.

This book, based on a library exhibition at the University of Chicago, has been put online by the University of Chicago library and thus has no restrictions on use.

La categoria del doppio nelle commedie plautine trova, come è noto, una sua prima e immediata declinazione negli intrecci fondati sulla presenza in scena dei simillimi, intesi come realtà speculari che, rischiando di determinare, in ragione della loro perfetta identità esteriore, una vera e propria spartizione della medesima 'funzione attanziale', presuppongono la regola ineludibile dell'alternanza nello sviluppo diegetico 1 . Il gioco dello scambio di persona su cui si fondano queste commedie degli equivoci prevede, infatti, che gli elementi della coppia di gemini non si incontrino mai fra di loro se non nel finale, luogo deputato alla risoluzione di ogni equivoco. Ad una più complessa e raffinata trama di equivoci, in cui lo spazio riservato al doppio e all'incredibile raffica di scambi di persona si dilata sino a sconfinare nella sfera della divinità, rinvia l'Amphitruo, che ribalta significativamente la sequenza diegetica collocando l'incontro tra simillimi all'inizio piuttosto che in chiusura del dramma. Nel nuovo scenario della tragicomoedia che, rappresentando lo sdoppiamento e lo scacco di dei ed eroi, si attesta su parametri irriducibili alla sfera del quotidiano, le coppie di identici perdono la tutela dell'alternanza scenica e si ritrovano a vivere il dramma della propria identità espropriata da un alter ego. E se per Anfitrione il risarcimento costituito dalla prole divina neutralizza il danno dell'adulterio avviando anche questa commedia al lieto fine, resta, però, l'impatto determinato dalla comparsa in scena di quel personaggio con la lanterna in mano, il povero Sosia, "a cui è toccata la poco invidiabile sorte di incontrare il suo 'doppio': il suo 'sosia', come ancora si dice in italiano, qualcuno che pretende di essere lui e che, di fatto, ha il suo identico aspetto" 2 .

Le voci dell'oratore. Oratoria e spettacolo nell'excursus quintilianeo De pronuntiatione [I.O. XI,3], in Scena e spettacolo nell'antichità, Atti del Convegno Internazionale di Studio (Trento, 28-30 marzo 1988), Firenze 1989, pp. 253-267; L. PÉREZ GÓMEZ, Quintiliano y la semiótica del teatro, «Emerita» 58,1990, 99-111. Qualcosa anche in S. GASTALDI, Il teatro delle passioni. Pathos nella retorica antica, in Il concetto di pav qo" nella cultura antica, Atti del Convegno tenuto a Taormina dal 1 al 4 giugno 1994 = «Elenchos» 16,1995, pp. 57-82 (part. p. 81 s. con riferimento al VI libro della Institutio).

The paper focusses on the central topic of friendship in the ‘Trinummus’ and observes the emerging paradoxes in the text’s staging of relationships between individuals. As it is well known, a specific aspect of this comedy is the representation of ‘amicitia’ as an interactive system involving both affective bounds and social hierarchies, kinship and economic exchanges. The analysis of some passages of the text highlights how the characters may become ‘enmeshed’, i.e. clumsily trapped in the ambiguities and contradictions of these complex relational networks. This analysis allows to investigate, on an anthropological level, the reasons for the unease of the individuals who struggle amid the paradoxes of amicitia, but also to explore, on a dramaturgical level, the ways in which Plautus plays with this complexity and this unease and presents them as comic devices.

Neste capítulo, tenho o objetivo de apresentar minha tradução em versos, anotada e comentada, do prólogo da comédia Poenulus (O Pequeno Cartaginês, como tradicionalmente se traduz), do comediógrafo Tito M. Plauto (254-184 a.C.), um dos mais importantes autores do teatro ocidental, que escreveu dezenas de comédias (das quais conhecemos hoje 21) para os palcos de Roma por volta de 205 a 184 a.C. Para isso, muito objetivamente, trato de algumas características do teatro de Plauto e do teatro de língua portuguesa dos séculos XIX-XX para fundamentar e justificar minha proposta de tradução. Depois, passo propriamente à apresentação da tradução em verso rimado do prólogo do Poenulus, que sucede uma pequena síntese
do enredo. A tradução aparecerá com notas de caráter explicativo, filológico e tradutório. Por último, faço comentários gerais que tornam  mais  explícitos  certos  procedimentos  tradutórios,  em especial, sobre o título, o tipo de verso empregado e o recurso da rima, ao que se adiciona uma nota de tradução sobre os versos 53-54.

A paucity of identifiable archaeological material makes it difficult to locate slavery in the archaeological record, but the figurines of slave characters in Roman comedy represent a rich, untapped resource. One character in particular, the ‘clever slave’ (servus callidus), with his devious schemes and sharp wit, captured the imagination of Roman society. This clever slave’s popularity is attested archaeologically, with thousands of charming figurines spanning different time periods and geographical areas of the Classical world. Much discussed in the field of classics, no previous work has been undertaken to examine this character from an archaeological perspective in terms of its societal significance. Slave statuettes have been unearthed in homes, sanctuaries and tombs- diverse contexts that hint at their multitudinous purposes. By examining a representative sample of the material evidence alongside comedic texts I provide an in-depth look at servus callidus figurines: their form and iconography, their archaeological contexts and their potential agency for the society that produced and purchased them.

Society in the 3 rd /2 nd Centuries. The period of the Punic Wars (roughly speaking, the mid-3 rd to the later-2 nd century BC) witnessed far-ranging changes at Rome. At the beginning of this period Rome was a moderately powerful city-state whose influence extended throughout the Italian peninsula south of the Po; by its conclusion, Rome had become the capital of a Mediterranean empire which embraced Spain, North Africa, Corsica and Sardinia, Sicily, Greece, and much of Asia Minor. The sudden influx of riches and of foreign influences that attended this transformation rendered the political, economic, and social structures of the Old Republic obsolete and led, ultimately, to the chaos of the Late Republic (ca. 133-27 BC). The small-scale citizen farmers, who in times of war had supplied the citizen militia which constituted the Roman army, discovered that their modest farms were no longer viable, due to the increased availability of imported grain and (particularly in the 1 st century) the rise of large farms and grazing operations run by gangs of slaves (the so-called latifundia). The city of Rome began to grow, its population increased by the influx of people from the countryside and by foreigners, drawn by the power and wealth of this new international capital. It is in this period that Rome is transformed into a cosmopolitan commercial and urban center. One of the surest indications of this change is the construction in the forum of large *basilicas (colonnaded public halls that served as financial centers, shops, courtrooms, and halls for political meetings): the Basilica Porcia in 184, the Basilica Aemilia in 179, and the Basilica Sempronia in 170. Business was booming. A less happy result of this transformation was the increasing polarization of Roman society into two classes, the immensely wealthy and the extremely poor. One of the most noticeable changes was the increase in the use of slaves. Prior to this time, slaves, while not uncommon, were employed on a relatively modest scale by the Romans. By the end of the 2 nd century, however, large numbers of slaves were pouring into Rome, either as prisoners of war or purchased abroad by newly wealthy Romans who now employed large staffs of domestic servants or invested in slaves as part of larger business ventures. The increasing number of slaves encouraged another trend of the period: a greater awareness of foreign cultures and the adoption of foreign social and religious practices by the Roman aristocracy. Greek culture, in particular, came to pervade Rome in this period. The Romans had long been familiar with Greek myth and something of Greek religion due to their relations with the cities of Magna Graecia and, in particular, the Etruscans. Now, however, things Greek became all the rage. Soldiers who had served in Rome's wars in southern Italy, Sicily, Greece, and Asia Minor came to appreciate the relative luxuriousness of daily life in these regions and began to demand a bit more refinement in their own private lives. Greek "experts" of all sortsartisans, doctors, cooks, philosophers, teachers of oratoryflooded into Rome, attracted by the Romans' new-found wealth and power. Many came to Rome originally as slaves, but their Roman masters quickly found that they could be put to better use than the usual menial tasks of house or farm. Talented slaves often won their freedom and became artists and intellectuals of some influence: hence the famous line of the poet Horace, who observed that captive Greece "captured" its savage captor. Many Romans, ever ready to copy the more developed peoples with which they came into contact, went "Greek." Greek art began to be collected on a large scale, either the real thing (brought to Rome as booty) or copies. (Much of our knowledge of Greek sculpture derives from the Roman taste for "knock-offs" of famous Greek originals.) In their private lives wealthy Romans in particular adopted a number of Greek practices: they now went clean shaven, ate bread instead of porridge, modified the traditional design of their houses to include a "Greek" addition in the rear, hired gourmet cooks and purchased elaborate dinner services, used to put on lavish dinner/drinking parties in the Greek fashion (known as symposia) where entertainment of various sortsliterary, musical, dramatic, gymnasticwould be provided by hired professionals.

Git repositories for various projects devoted to Social Network Analysis (SNA) of character interactions in Roman Comedy.

° Social Networking Analysis (SNA) project: https://github.com/ancient-drama-SNA/Roman_Comedy-SNA

° Prototype site: https://ancient-drama-sna.github.io/Roman_comedy_networks/

° Insult Tables: https://github.com/ancient-drama-SNA/Insult_tables-Roman_Comedy

Plautus’ Roman comedy Menaechmi (The Two Menaechmuses) of c. 200 BC anticipates in fictional form the famous Rosenhan experiment of 1973, a landmark critique of psychiatric diagnosis. An analysis of the scenes of feigned madness and psychiatric examination suggests that the play (and the earlier Greek play from which it was adapted) offers two related ethical reflections, one on the validity of psychiatric diagnoses, the other on the validity of the entire medical model of insanity—that is, of the popular notion and political truth that mental illness is a (bodily) disease “like any other.” This essay is offered as a contribution to the interpretation of the play as well as to the history of psychiatry.

This is a comparison of Agathon’s role in Aristophanes’ Thesmophoriazusae and Plato’s Symposium. Firstly, I examine the Platonic version, and the unique, idiosyncratic part Plato gives Agathon to play, as a host to all, and a hostage to Socrates. Secondly, I discuss his interaction with Inlaw, the ordinary Athenian, in Aristophanes’ play. Such parallel reading allows us not only to refine our outlook on the dramatic construction both of the “talking party” and of the comic performance, but also to capture how really poikilos, for better or worse, that urban love could be. Finally, I analyze the significance of this juxtaposition, as an intertext. Plato, I argue, produces a proper palinode of Agathon, as an erotikos and a mimetic poet. By taking seriously the face-to-face between Agathon and Agathon, two dissonant and yet compatible variations on one man, our picture of Athenian erotic culture emerges sharper, and in greater detail. 
Key words:
Eros, sensuality, praise, blame, softness, manliness, effeminacy, body, language.

Il volume racconta il monumento nei suoi dettagli, dalle origini greche alla sua trasformazione nel quartiere catanese chiamato “Grotte”, fino alla sua riscoperta nella metà del ‘700 e alla progressiva liberazione dalle case che nel tempo lo avevano nascosto. Ma il volume racconta anche di quanto intimo e quotidiano fosse il rapporto tra questo grande spazio pubblico e gli antichi catanesi, di come vi si svolgessero gli spettacoli, dalle tragedie greche di età classica alle commedie romane, di come si ingannasse il tempo tra uno spettacolo e l’altro, attraverso gli oggetti smarriti dagli spettatori, attraverso le centinaia di lucerne che illuminavano al crepuscolo la grande cavea e la strada del ritorno a casa.

La pubblicazione del volume è stata finanziata con i fondi di Ateneo 2019 dell'Università degli Studi di Roma "Sapienza" nell'ambito del progetto "Tipologie di interferenza grafica nel mondo antico" (TIGMA) / "Types of Graphic Interferences in Ancient World" (TGAW).

Notes for my lectures on Middle and New Comedy, for an undergraduate course once taught in our department. Topics treated include: the evolution and changes of comic forms during the 4th century B.C.; themes, plots, and characters in Middle and New Comedy; Menander's life, works, and historical context; Menander's survival in the papyri; Menander as an innovator of the comic tradition; studies of select Menandrian characters (soldiers in the Misoumenos and the Perikeiromene, cook and parasite in the Dyskolos, misanthrope in the Dyskolos); scenery and costumes in 4th-century and Hellenistic comedy; the legacy of New Comedy in Roman theatre.

Αντικείμενο του συγκεκριμένου άρθρου αποτελεί ένας από τους τυπικά επαναλαμβανόμενους χαρακτήρες της Νέας Κωμωδίας και της Ρωμαϊκής fabula palliata, ο adulescens amans, του οποίου η δράση κινητροδοτείται από τον έρωτά του για μια mulier, όπως παρουσιάζεται στις palliatae του Τερεντίου. Η δραματική ταυτότητα του adulescens αποτελεί κοινό μοτίβο στους εκπροσώπους του είδους τόσο στο ελληνικό κωμικό θέατρο της μετακλασικής αρχαιότητας (Μένανδρος) όσο και στη ρωμαϊκή κωμωδία (Πλαύτος και Τερέντιος). Οι νεαροί ενσαρκώνουν τον ρόλο του άβουλου, απένταρου, σφόδρα ερωτευμένου νέου που δεν μπορεί να διεκδικήσει την αγαπημένη του και είναι έρμαιο των καταστάσεων και των άλλων χαρακτήρων που συχνά ορίζουν ως auctores την υπόθεση του έργου. Μακριά από τη γελοιοποίηση της οποίας τυγχάνουν άλλοι πάγιοι χαρακτήρες, όπως οι milites, οι adulescentes είναι μάλλον ευγενικά δομημένοι, αλλά δίχως ενδιαφέρον αποτυπωμένοι, και βιώνουν το δράμα τους μέσα στην κωμωδία παράγοντας έτσι το κωμικό αποτέλεσμα.

Όσον αφορά στη fabula palliata του Τερεντίου, η σημασία του adulescens στη δομή του δράματος ενισχύεται, καθώς υπάρχουν -με εξαίρεση την Hecyra- δύο adulescentes σε κάθε έργο. Έτσι, συναντούμε στην Andria τον ερωτευμένο με τη virgo και pseudo-meretrix Glycerium Pampilus και τον ερωτευμένο με τη virgo Philumena Charinus, στην Hecyra τον Pamphilus που αν και ερωτευμένος με τη meretrix Bacchis, νυμφεύεται τη virgo Philumena, στον Heauton timorumenos τον Clitipho που είναι ερωτευμένος με τη meretrix Bacchis, αλλά στο τέλος νυμφεύεται τη virgo filia Archonidi και τον Clinia που αγαπά και νυμφεύεται τη virgo Antiphila και που προκειμένου να εξαπατηθεί ο senex Chremes, προσποιείται ο ίδιος τον ερωτευμένο με τη meretrix Bacchis, στον Eunuchus τον Phaedria που αγαπά τη meretrix Thais και τον Chaerea που αγαπά τη virgo και pseudo-meretrix Pamphila, ενώ στο περιθώριο αυτών συναντούμε τους adulescentes Chremes και Antipho, στον Phormio τους adulescentes Antipho και Phaedria που είναι ερωτευμένοι με τη virgo Phanium και τη meretrix Pamphila αντίστοιχα, ενώ στοιχεία adulescens απαντούν και στον ένα από τους δύο senes του έργου, τον Chremes, και τέλος, στους Adelphoe τους αδελφούς adulescentes Aeschinus και Ctesipho που είναι ερωτευμένοι με τη virgo Pamphila και τη meretrix Bacchis αντίστοιχα, ενώ τέλος στοιχεία adulescens απαντούν και στον senex Micio αυτής της κωμωδίας. Έτσι, μέσα από την αναλυτικότερη προσέγγιση των κωμωδιών του Τερεντίου θα σχηματιστεί ένας χάρτης με τα βασικά και τα επί μέρους γνωρίσματα των αφελών ερωτευμένων νεαρών των κωμωδιών του ποιητή, και θα καταδειχθεί η ουσιαστική συμβολή του Τερεντίου στην εξέλιξη ενός χαρακτήρα ο οποίος κατά παράδοση θεωρείται αυστηρά τυποποιημένος.

The subject of this short paper is the stereotypical comic character of adulescens amans, as this character appears in all six comedies of Terence, the second of the two major poets of the Roman New Comedy. By examining the Terentian fabula palliata, there are many main elements and characteristics that emerge and set apart Terence from Plautus and the other previous comedians. Traditionally, an adulescens amans falls in love with a mulier and has to cope with many problems, since there are many hurdles that need to be surmounted before their union may be realized. Not least, the young man has to confront his father, a severe senex, who opposes his son’s marriage to the young maiden. In the Plautine tradition the adulescens usually adopts a rather passive attitude over things concerning him. But Terence’s difference and notable contribution to the tradition of Roman New Comedy is the fact that he makes the adulescens more energetic, active and vigorous by giving him a crucial role in the plot of the drama, that is by making him an auctor who has his own plan in the comedy.

Δημοσιευμένο ως: Σταματόπουλος, Παναγιώτης (2014), «Ο στερεοτυπικός χαρακτήρας του adulescens amans στις palliatae του Publius Terentius Afer», στο Πρακτικά 7ου Συνεδρίου Μεταπτυχιακών Φοιτητών & Υποψήφιων Διδακτόρων Τμήματος Φιλολογίας Ε.Κ.Π.Α. (16-18 Μαΐου 2013), τόμος Α’, 446-55, Αθήνα. [Αναδημοσιευμένο με τροποποιήσεις στο περιοδικό της Πανελλήνιας Ένωσης Φιλολόγων (Π.Ε.Φ.) "Φιλολογική" ως: Σταματόπουλος, Παναγιώτης (2015), «Ο στερεοτυπικός χαρακτήρας του adulescens amans (= ερωτευμένος νεανίας) στις κωμωδίες (palliatae) του Τερεντίου», "Φιλολογική", τεύχ. 131, 70-79, Αθήνα.]