A ''fabula togata'' is a Latin comedy in a Roman setting, in existence since at least the second century BC. Lucius Afranius and Titus Quinctius Atta are known to have written ''fabulae togatae''. It is also treated as an expression that functioned as the overall description of all Roman types of drama in accordance with a distinction between Roman ''

toga The toga (, ), a distinctive garment of Ancient Rome, was a roughly semicircular cloth, between in length, draped over the shoulders and around the body. It was usually woven from white wool, and was worn over a tunic. In Roman historical tra ...

'' and ''

pallium The pallium (derived from the Roman ''pallium'' or ''palla'', a woolen cloak; : pallia) is an ecclesiastical vestment in the Catholic Church, originally peculiar to the pope, but for many centuries bestowed by the Holy See upon metropolitan bish ...

''. There are recorded sources that cite how this drama could be obscene and moralistic. By mid-second century BC the ''fabula togata'' had become one of the two types of drama that constituted a bifurcated Roman comedy along with ''

fabula palliata ''Fabula palliata'' is a genre of Theatre of ancient Rome, Roman drama that consists largely of Romanized versions of Theatre of ancient Greece, Greek plays.''OCD'', sv. palliata The name ''palliata'' comes from ''Pallium (Roman cloak), pallium'' ...

''. The ''fabula togata'' was distinguished from the ''palliata'' primarily by its use of Roman or Italian characters, transferring the comic situations of the bourgeois ''palliata'' to the lower-class citizens of the country towns of Italy. The ''palliata'' was based on originals of Greek

New Comedy Ancient Greek comedy () was one of the final three principal dramatic forms in the theatre of classical Greece; the others being tragedy and the satyr play. Greek comedy was distinguished from tragedy by its happy endings and use of comically ...

, tragedies from

Attic An attic (sometimes referred to as a '' loft'') is a space found directly below the pitched roof of a house or other building. It is also known as a ''sky parlor'' or a garret. Because they fill the space between the ceiling of a building's t ...

sources as well as the grand dramatization of Rome's past. In the ''togata'' the typical clothing worn by the all male actors was the ''toga'', a typically Roman dress, while the ''palliata'' took its name from the ''pallium''. There is no existing complete ''fabula togata'' but there are surviving fragments that indicate aspects of the creative practice.

References

* Peter Lebrecht Schmidt "Togata" in: ''Brill's New Pauly'', Antiquity volumes edited by: Hubert Cancik and Helmuth Schneider. Consulted online on 21 July 2017 Comedy Latin-language literature Ancient Roman theatre History of theatre {{AncientRome-stub

See also

References