1.1 The Ancient Roman Drama
1.1.1 Structure
As a token of respect for Livius Andronicus, who had calmed Juno's wrath by writing a religious hymn, the Collegium scribarum histrionumque was founded in Rome in 207 BC. Under the protection of Minerva, this institution didn't have as much influence as its Greek counterparts and plays were mostly organised between the writer and the one paying for it. At that time Romans could only enjoy the performances during religious festivals and because theatre had such a temporarily character, wooden structures were used to play on. That way, they could easily be broken down after the show, because there simply was no need for a permanent structure. Not until 55 BC, when Rome saw its first theatre, built in stone.
1.1.2 Metrical systems
For Roman tragedy and comedy of old times, the metrical systems of the Greeks were used, with these two being the most important :
X -- | ^ -- | X -- | ^ -- | X -- | ^ -- |
As for the clarification : everything between two vertical stripes is known as a foot, -- means a long syllable, ^ means a short syllable and X means either a short one or a long one. In this system feet 2, 4 and 6 had to be "pure" (which means that no matter what, this foot had to be as described in the system, in this case : short - long) while the others could either be short - long as well or long - long. This was known as the Greek iambic trimeter
In Roman literature, however, only the sixth foot had to be pure, so we have the following structure :
X -- | X -- | X -- | X -- | X -- | ^ -- |
The second system was the "Greek catalectic trochaic terameter" :
-- ^ | -- X | -- ^ | -- X | -- ^ | -- X | -- ^ | -- |
Everyone probably understands now what all these symbols mean, so let's have a look at how the Romans used this one :
-- X | -- X | -- X | -- X | -- X | -- X | -- ^ | -- |
Again we see the change, where the Greeks had a "pure" foot on places 1, 3, 5 and 7, the Romans only pose this demand for the seventh foot. There were of course other systems as well for smaller genres at that time but that would take us too far in the thrilling world of Roman metrical systems
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by Marcus Pomponius Lupus