Sunt postprincipia atque exitus malae vitiosae vitae’ For instance, when they reached this sentence (I quote from Ribbeck's version): Suitable passages in the play were emphasized by the actors in such a way as to suggest allusions to the contemporary political scene. a performance of the Simulans of Afranius was made the basis for a political demonstration, the purpose of which was the promotion of the return of Cicero, from exile ( pro 118) Google Scholar. The fragments of Sophron and Epicharmus give no indication that they attacked men of their own times, while the extant mimes of Herodas, like the mimic imitations in Theocritus, are concerned solely with types of humanity, not with individuals. In the information that we possess about the deikelistai and other forms of immature burlesque, about the comedy of Megara, and about the phlyakes of Tarentum, there is nothing to show that the little plays took any cognizance of contemporary events the only individualized characters introduced are the gods and heroes of mythology. From the beginning the Greek mime laid the emphasis on the portrayal of character, on the delineation of types rather than of individuals. But there is no evidence to show that this was so. It might be tempting to imagine that direct criticism of contemporaries could still have been found on the impermanent stages of the travelling mimes. The legitimate stage seems to have departed from this practice in part with the advent of the Middle Comedy, and almost completely in the New. Gratwick)Ĭondo et compono quae mox depromere possim.In the Old Attic Comedy contemporary figures were criticized in the most outspoken manner.
Because of this Caesar transferred his support to Publilius. ‘he whom many fear must inevitably fear many.’Īt the sound of these words everyone in the audience turned their eyes and faces on Caesar alone, observing that his immoderate behaviour had received a fatal blow with this caustic gibe. ‘furthermore, Roman citizens, we are losing our liberty.’ Moreover, during the performance of the play, he was continuously taking his revenge, however he could dressed as a Syrian, who pretended that he had been flogged, and looked like a runaway slave, he would cry out: So Old Age throttles me with her embrace of years Īnd like the tomb, I retain nothing but my name.’ My manliness of spirit, or the sound of my melodious voice?Īs creeping ivy throttles the strength of trees, My grace of form, or my impressive presence? Is it now that you cast me down? For what? What have I to offer the theatre? To please the Roman People and would have been able to please such a man? When I had the power with limbs budding at the tip Why did you not bend me to pick when still resilient, My reputation’s tip when it blossomed with literary praise, I have lived one more than I ever should have lived.įortune, immoderate in good and ill alike, Having set forth from my hearth a Roman knight, I, twice thirty years spent without reproach, No intimidation, no violence, no pressureĬould ever shift me from my station in my prime īehold in age how easily an outstanding man’s wordsĮxpressed in gentle spirit, words quietly spoken,Ĭonciliatory nice-sounding words, have toppled me from my place!įor indeed who would be able to tolerate me,Ī human, refusing him to whom the very gods have not been able to refuse anything? To what corner have you forced me almost at the end of my faculties! Many have wished, but few have been able to escape, But a potentate’s invitation, or even his mere request, in effect amounts to compulsion and so it is that Laberius, in the prologue to his play, testifies to the fact that he has been compelled by Caesar with the following lines: Laberius was a harsh and outspoken Roman knight, whom Caesar for a fee of 500,000 sesterces invited to appear on the stage and to act in person in the mimes which he was always writing. ob haec in Publilium vertit favorem.(Macrobius, Sat. 2.7.2-5)
Quo dicto universitas populi ad solum Caesarem oculos et ora convertit, notantes impotentiam eius hac dicacitate lapidatam. ‘necesse est multos timeat quem multi timent.’ In ipsa quoque actione subinde se, qua poterat, ulciscebatur, inducto habitu Syri, qui velut flagris caesus praeripientique se similis exclamabat:
Sepulchri similis nil nisi nomen retineo.’ Nuncin me deicis? quo? quid ad scaenam affero? Non flexibilem me concurvasti ut carperes? Satisfacere populo et tali cum poteram viro Nullus timor, vis nulla, nulla auctoritasįortuna, immoderata in bono aeque atque in malo, Voluerunt multi effugere, pauci potuerunt, ‘Necessitas, cuius cursus transversi impetum sed potestas non solum si invitet sed et si supplicet cogit, unde se et Laberius a Caesare coactum in prologo testatur his versibus: Laberium asperae libertatis equitem Romanum Caesar quingentis milibus invitavit ut prodiret in scaenam et ipse ageret mimos quos scriptitabat.
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