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 ''fabulas togatas''. 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'' and '' pallium''. 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''. 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, tragedies from

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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