People want to have fun and entertainment no matter what the circumstances. The Roman atellan farces live on in Hollywood as slapstick comedies, and there is even a movie based on the first Roman comedy writer, Plautus: Funny thing happened on the way to the Forum". Terence and Plautus were sources of Shakespeare's comedies and Moliere's biting wit. 

The devastating war with Hannibal did not interfere with annual elections, with other business of the state and certainly not with the theatre season. The Romans enjoyed their theatre, but strictly comedies. It seems that the Romans had enough tragedies in their lives – comparison of the census of citizens before and after the 2^nd Punic war could be an indication why – that they wanted comedies, mimes, gags and general funny mayhem on the stage.

On the other hand, the theatre seemed always very frivolous to the Romans. Therefore no permanent building for a theatre was built until the 1^st century BC. The theatre was a wooden affair, put up before games and taken down after. That resulted from time to time in a collapse of the theatre, but still no sturdy stone one was built. The public celebrations, games, races were usually part a some festival to honour the gods, and were in the province of the aediles, officers who had also supervision over markets, streets and general well being of the city. The supervision of the markets and streets was very strict, because the fines the aediles collected went into the expenses for games. The more money, the better games, and voters could remember who put up good games and who put up stingy ones.

Already on the books since the Laws of Twelve Tables from 445 BC was a law forbidding slander. Thus, when Titus Maccius Plautus wrote his comedies (254-184 BC), his characters spoke Latin, were recognizable Roman figures, like the anxious fathers of spendthrift sons, merry daughters or smart slaves, but they all had staunchly (and ridiculous) Greek names to escape libel charges.

Plautus was born in Umbria a worked as a stage hand, where he probably gained his love of theatre. Later he came into some money and lost it all in a naval investment. Deprived of money, he became a day labourer and started to write plays. We have today 20 of the 52 he wrote. It is not such a great prize, because all his plays we have are from a palimpsest. Palimpsest is a parchment manuscript, which has been scrubbed of the original text and reused for other writing. Well, the manuscript with Plautus’ plays has been thus treated by some monk, who wanted to record for posterity some comments of Augustine from 4^th century AD. Fortunately, this diligent guy was diligent mostly at the beginning of scrubbing the manuscript and we lack only some beginnings of the comedies, like Pot of Gold, which cannot be recovered even by using modern technology.

Another playwright from that era was Publius Terentius Afer (c. 195-152 BC). Senator Terentius brought a boy to Rome from Africa as a slave, had him educated and freed him. Afer died young in a shipwreck coming home to Rome from Greece. However, all 6 plays which he managed to write survived. He is the author of this interesting line: “I am a human being and nothing human is alien to me”. His first play was “The girl from Andros”, which proved so complicated that it needed a 'deus ex machina’, or rather a stranger to come and unravel all the confusing relationships occurring on the stage. 

Terentius’ plays were popular even in the Middle Ages and his plays started to be played again in the Renaissance in Florence. His Latin is straightforward and elegant and contemporary to his time. Plautus had the unfortunate inclination to use archaisms – probably surviving in that small town where he grew up. 

Both of these writers had to present their plays before they were staged to the aediles or the censors – just to be sure that they did not injure any “Romanness”. By the content of these plays, where ridiculous characters abound, it seems that this characteristic – Romanness (romanitas) – used a very broad brush. Or the censors and aediles were not stuffy and wanted people to have fun.

    

           

           

         

Meanwhile in Rome…

                    The victorious wars, especially the existential one with Carthage, brought wealth and pride to Rome. It seemed that everybody was bent to either erode the mos maiorum, the traditions of ancestors, or to promote it. Some political rifts opened in the society. Similarly, like president Obama promoting European ideals, which are unsustainable, and which are greeted with suspicion by right of centre American public. The battle lines are drawn, as they were in the 2nd century BC Rome.

Roman jewelry

              Within the Roman society there was a transition in progress: from rusticity to Hellenistic civilization and oriental spending habits. The chief offices of the state had become almost hereditary of a few distinguished families, whose wealth corresponded to their noble birth. 

          Popular by acts of graceful but corrupting generosity, by charming manners, and by the appeal of hereditary honours - they collected the material power granted by elections and the intellectual power provided by philosophical education, their taste in the fine arts, and their knowledge of stylish literature. The leading lights were e.g. the Cornelii Scipiones and their circle of intellectual friends and dependents.

   However,  there was a strong reaction to their elitist manners.  Other individuals, eager to ascend the ladder of magistracies, were  jealous of this exclusivity and openly watchful for any decadence and disorder associated with luxury and placed themselves at the head of a party which showed its determination to rely on purer models and that attached much importance to the ancient ways.

A Roman couple. Roman women had a much better
position and freedom in Roman society than
Greek women

  In their eyes, rusticity, austerity, and asceticism were the marks of a proper Roman robustness  and of the old Roman  integrity and love of order.  M. Claudius Marcellus or philhellenic Scipio Africanus and T. Quinctius Flaminius, were an example of the new hellenistically educated class;  Fabius Maximus, Valerius Flaccus and especially Marcus Porcius Cato the Elder led a party of determined rustics, eager to put the Cornelii into undyed tunics woven by their own wives.

Cato the Censor

There was a big clash of both parties in 195 BC. Besides constantly hounding Scipio Africanus with petty charges, there was an opportunity to put upstart females in their place. After the battle of Cannae in 216 BC, many restrictions were placed on any luxuries and one of them was ban on women having and wearing jewelry, because all precious metals had to be lend to the state to pay for the war supplies. 

Roman Matron

 All other austerity measures were gradually repealed, except for women’s finery. Two Tribunes of the Plebs were pushed by their wives to propose repeal of this law in the Assembly. Two tribunes were against the repeal, and this matter caused unusual rift in the College of the Tribunes of the Plebs.

         When the day came to debate this proposal in the Assembly, women were in the streets and on the roofs, and harassed the men going to the Assembly meeting to put them in the right frame of mind. 

Women portraits

        The conservative M. Porcius Cato thundered from the speaker's platform,  rostra, that it is a scandal, that women instead of sitting at home and minding their own household business were interfering in politics. They were supposed to be subservient! Consul Valerius, looking haunted and hounded and harassed by his own womenfolk, held an opposing speech to say that he rather liked to have at home sisters and daughters and a wife, not servants.

 When the issue went to vote, other Roman citizen women from surrounding communities arrived in Rome to help their feisty colleagues. The austerity law was repealed, and no tribune interposed their veto, because those two who would be on Cato’s side were imprisoned at home by the more radical female elements. It is interesting from legal point of view, that there were no measures taken against women, or against the ringleaders of this female mutiny.

The men though were surely swayed not only by the possibility that they might get lousy suppers for the next who knows how long, but by a very reasonable issue brought to the men's attention - namely, the austerity law applied to the Roman citizen women, but not to Roman allies - that meant, that any wife or daughter of a non-Roman citizen could be carried around in a litter, be bedecked by precious metals and fine cloth, but not the wives and daughters of the victorious Romans.

Earrings