Roman Historical Drama: The Octavia In Antiquity and Beyond

Description

The Octavia is the only surviving historical drama from ancient Rome. With a plot rich in sex, dynastic intrigue, riots, and murder, the play's characters include the philosopher Seneca, the emperor Nero, the ghost of his murdered mother, his wife Octavia, and his mistress and empress-to-be Poppaea. For centuries dismissed as a feeble, rhetorically overblown closet-drama written without consideration for the demands of plot or stage, the Octavia's dynamic changes of time and setting, its startling interplay of the verbal and visual, and its integration of issues pervading the politics of the period in which it was written, reflect scenic conventions and a notion of the dramatic that radically transforms and expands our knowledge of ancient theatre and the Roman stage. Roman Historical Drama is the first comprehensive interpretation of ancient historical drama in relation to this exciting play, revealing how the Octavia mirrors the genre's traditions by mixing formats and stock characters from traditional tragedy with elements drawn from new developments of the Hellenistic and Roman stage. The volume explores the role and impact of historical (and political) drama in Rome, offering a pioneering reading of the Octavia in relation to ancient performance practice, as well as to the politics of those who in AD 68 brought down the tyrant Nero. In its final section, the volume provides a panoramic survey of the revival and reinvention of classical tragedy in the Renaissance period, tracing the impact of the Octavia from Italy through France to Elizabethan England. Cover Roman Historical Drama: The Octavia in Antiquity and Beyond Copyright Dedication Acknowledgements Contents List of Illustrations List of Tables Part I: The Tradition 1: Recovering a Lost Genre 2: Republican Flourishing and Imperial Decline? 3: A Genre and its Uses 1. RITUALS AND ORIGINS 2. DAYS OF REMEMBRANCE 4: Accius 1. BRUTUS 2. DECIUS OR ‘DEFEATING THE GAULS’ 5: Romans Fighting Romans 1. PARTISAN STAGINGS 2. PHARSALOS—SEEN FROM CÁDIZ 3. SPAIN, CAESAR, AND POMPEY 6: Stages Old and New 1. STAGING AND RECITATION 2. THE FUN (AND SHAME) IN ACTING 3. UPPER CLASS ANXIETIES 4. TRAGEDY ON THE ROMAN STAGE, FROM NERO TO TRAJAN 5. THE EMPEROR-ACTOR 6. THE IMPERIAL STAGE 7: Imperial Praetextae 1. THE AENEAS BY POMPONIUS SECUNDUS 2. PERSIUS’ ESSAY 3. TACITUS AND MATERNUS 4. CATO THE YOUNGER 5. MATERNUS’ CATO 6. THE FATE OF MATERNUS 7. MATERNUS’ NERO: DATE AND CONTEXT Part II: The Octavia 8: A Praetexta? 1. GENRE CONTINUITY? 2. TRADITIONAL ASPECTS 3. PLOTS AND STRUCTURES 9: Time and Place 1. THE ANONYMUS 2. IMPLIED SETTINGS 3. DRAMATIC TIME 4. DRAMATIC PLACE 10: Plot and Historical Background 1. ‘A TRAGEDY HAS THREE PARTS’ 2. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND: PARALLELS AND CONTRASTS 3. THE IMPLIED GEOGRAPHY 4. ADJUSTING AND RESHAPING TRADITION 11: Octavia and the People 1. NURSE AND EMPRESS 2. THE CURSED CHAMBER 3. THE CURSE 4. THE FIRST SONG OF THE CHORUS ROMANORUM 12: Seneca and Nero 1. SENECA’S MONOLOGUE 2. SENECA-NERO: THE FIRST PART OF THE DIALOGUE 3. SENECA-NERO: THE FINAL PART OF THE DIALOGUE 13: The Ghost, the Divorce, and the Wedding 1. STAGING GHOSTS 2. A GHOST COME REAL 3. A NEW BEGINNING 4. EXIT OCTAVIA 5. THE SECOND SONG OF THE CHORUS ROMANORUM 14: What Poppaea Saw 1. EMPRESS JOINS NURSE 2. EXIT POPPAEA 3. A PROPHECY FITTING THE FACTS 15: The Revolt, the Fire, and the Ship of Death 1. CHORUS OF COURTIERS AND MESSENGER 2. NERO AND THE FIRE OF ROME 3. THE PREFECT AND NERO 4. THE THIRD SONG OF THE CHORUS ROMANORUM 5. OCTAVIA TRIUMPHANT 16: The Time of Writing 1. LOOKING FOR TERMINI POST 2. A DATE SOON AFTER NERO’S FALL? 3. THE POPULUS ROMANUS AGAINST NERO 4. ROMA RENASCENS 5. TRUE CLEMENTIA 6. ‘NERO FORCED ME’ 7. NERO UNMASKED Part III: The Afterlife 17: Tragic Pasts 1. PROLOGUE 2. A GREEK OR GRECO-ROMAN REVIVAL? 3. OCTAVIA, TRISSINO, AND RUCELLAI: THE BEGINNINGS OF VERNACULAR TRAGEDY 4. FROM POETICS TO STAGING: GIRALDI, SPERONI, AND DOLCE 5. TASSO’S TORRISMONDO 6. MARY STUART GOES ON STAGE 7. OCTAVIA GOES ABROAD: FRANCE, PORTUGAL, SPAIN, AND ENGLAND 8. OCTAVIA GOES TO THE OPERA 9. ENVOI Bibliography Manuscripts Printed sources Abbreviations Index Locorum: Ancient Texts and Evidence Index of Persons, Subjects, and Places