Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

TRAGOEDIA. TRAGOEDIA. 1147
frequently uses the persona protatica. (Donat. meter verses. (Macrob. Sat. i. 7.) The fivi poets
Ter. Prolog. ad Andr.) mentibned above belong tb the eaifliei i6poch of
The &tXopla was a double chorus, formed of the Roman tragedy, in which little wais written but
choruses of two separate plays: thus at the end translations and imitations of the Greek, with ocof the Eumenides of Aeschylus the Furies of one casional insertions of original matter. How they
play and the festal train of another come on the imitated the structure of the choral odes is doubtstage together. (MUller, Literat. &c. p. 300.) ful, perhaps they never attempted it. Ennius,
The principal modern writers.on the Greek Pacuvius, and Accius are contrasted by Cicero
Tragedy are mentioned in the course of the article. (de Orat. iii. 7)9 With Aestchylus, Sophocles, and
The reader may also consult Wachsintith, vol. ii. Euripides; and of the two last Quintilian (x. 1.
pt. ii. pp. 467, 421; Gruppe, A riadize Die Tragiscie ~ 97) says, "Virium Accio plus tribtsittir; PaaciKunst der Griehen in irer Entioickelung and in vium videri doctiorem, qui esse docti affectant
i/re77, ZYusammzenhangoe mit der Volkspoesie, Berl. volunt."
1834; Museum Criticumn, vol. ii. p. 69, &c.; Cop- In the age of Augustus the writing of tragedies,
leston, Praelectiones Acadcnicae; Schneider, Ueber whether original or imitations, seems to have been
des Attisclhe Thleaterwesen an exceedingly valuable quite a fashionable occupation. The emperor himbook. self attempted an Ajax, but did not succeed; and
2. ROMAN. The tragedy of the Romans was, when his friends asked him, " Quidnam Ajax
for the most part, an imitation of, or rather a bor- ageret?" his reply was " Ajacem suum in spongiam
rowinrg from, the Greek, the more imperfect and incubuisse." (Suet. Aug. 85.) One of the prinunnatural, as the construction of the Roman cipal tragedians of this epoch was Asinius Pollio,
theatre afforded no appropriate place for the to whom the line (Virg. Eclog. viii. 10)
chorus, which was therefore obliged to appear on Soa ophocleo t carmin dign cotho,
the stage, instead of in the orchestra. The first
tragic poet and actor at Rome (Gellius, xxi. 17) was is sulppased to apply: he also excelled in other
Livius Andronicus; a Greek by birth, who began literary accomplishments. (Hor. CTarm. ii. 1.) Ovid
to exhibit in n. c. 240. From the account in (Trist. ii. 556) also wrote a tragedy, of which
Livy (vii. 2), it would seem that in his monodies Quintilian (x. 1. ~ 98) says, " Ovidii Medea vi(or the lyrical parts sung, not by a chorus, but by detur mihi ostendere, quantum ille vir praestare
one person), it was customary to separate the sing- pottlerit si ingenio suo temperare quam indulgere
ing from the mimetic dancing, leaving the latter maluisset." His "armorum judicium" (Metamor.
only to the actor, while the singing was performed xiii.) between Ajax and Ulysses, oil which Pacti.
by a boy placed near the flute-player (ante tibi- vius and Accius also wrote dramas, proves that
cistenm); so that the dialogue only (diverbia) was he might have rivalled Euripides in rhetorical
left to be spoken by the actors. One of the plays skill. Quintilian also says of Varius, who was
written by him was an " Andromeda;" and he distinguished in epic as well as tragic poetry (Hor,
also made a Latin prose translation of the Odyssee. Carme. i. 6, Ar. Poet. 55; Tacit. Dial. xii. 1), that
The next tragic poet at Rome was Naevius; who his Thyestes might be compared with any of the
however appears to have written comedies as well Greek tragedies. Some fragments of this Thyestes
as tragedies (Hieron. in Euseb. Olynmp. 144. 3), are extant, but we have no other remains of the
and a history of the first Punic war: so that the tragedy of the Augustan age. The loss perhaps is
writing of tragedies was not a distinct profession not great; for the want of a national and indiat Rome, as at Athens. An " Alcestis" seems to genous mythology must have disabled the Roman
have been written by' him. To the same epoch as poets from producing any original counterparts of
Livius Andronicus, and Naevits, belongs Ennius, the Greek tragedy; besides which, in the later
who resembled the latter in being an epic poet as days of the republic, and under the empire, the
well as a tragedian. Amongst the plays wriqtten Roman people were too fond of gladiatorial shows,
by him are mentioned, a Medea, an Ajax, a and beast-fights, and gorgeous spectacles, to enPhoenissae, an Iphigenia, an Andromache, and a courage the drama. Moreover, it is also manifest
Hecuba. The metre used by him and Naevius that a tragedy like that of the Greeks could not
was iambic or trochaic in the dialogue, and ana- have flourished under a despotism.
paestic for the lyrical parts. (Gellius, xi. 4.) The The only complete Roman tragedies that have
next distinguished tragedian was Pacuvius, a come down to us are the ten attributed to the
nephew of EnniLs, and a painter also. His style philosopher Seneca. But whether he wrote any
was more remarkable for spirit and vigour of ex- of them or not is a disputed point. It is agreed
pression than polish or'refinement, a deficiency that they are not all from the same hand, and it
attributable to his age and provincial origin, as he is doubtful whether they are all of the same age
was born at Brundisium. Among his plays occur even. In one of them, the Medea, the author
an Antiope, a Chryses, and a Dulorestes (Quintil. made his heroine kill her children on the stage,
x. 1; Cicero, Orat. iii. 39), and his tragedies' coram populo," in spite of the precept of Horace.
found admirers even in the time of Persius (i. Schlegel (Lect. viii.) thus speaks of them: " To
77). Cicero (1. c.) quotes from him a spirited whatever age they belong, they are beyond detranslation of the concluding lines of the Prome- scription bombastic and frigid, utterly unnatural in
theus Vinctus of Aeschyllus. Attins or Accius character and action, and full of the most revolting
the younger was junior to Pacuvius by about fifty violations of propriety, and barren of all theatrical
years. His earlier plays were, as he himself ad- effect. With the old Grecian tragedies they have
mitted, harsh and obseuie (Gellius, xiii, 2); but nothing in common but the name, the exterior
his style probably altered with increasing years. form, and the matter. Their persons are neither
Many fragments of his plays occur in Cicero and ideal nor real men, but misshapen giants of pupthe Latin grammarians,- Diomedes, Nonius, and pets, and the wire that moves them is at one time
Varro. He was also a writer of annals in hexa- an unnatural heroism, at another a passion?nlike