Theatre flourished in the Roman Republic, from the tragedies of Ennius and Pacuvius to the comedies of Plautus and Terence and the mimes of Laberius. Yet apart from the surviving plays of Plautus and Terence the sources are fragmentary and difficult to interpret and contextualise. This book provides a comprehensive history of all aspects of the topic, incorporating recent findings and modern approaches. It discusses the origins of Roman drama and the historical, social and institutional backgrounds of all the dramatic genres to be found during the Republic (tragedy, praetexta, comedy, togata, Atellana, mime and pantomime). Possible general characteristics are identified, and attention is paid to the nature of and developments in the various genres. The clear structure and full bibliography also ensure that the book has value as a source of reference for all upper-level students and scholars of Latin literature and ancient drama.

Latin writers in the ancient world are well known to have been familiar with earlier Greek writings, as well as with the first commentaries on those, and to have taken over literary genres as well as topics and motifs from Greece for their own works. But, as has been recognized in modern scholarship, this engagement with Greek material does not mean that Roman writers typically produced Latin copies of pieces by their Greek predecessors. In the terms of contemporary literary terminology, the connection between Latin and Greek literature is rather to be described as an intertextual relationship, which became increasingly complex, since later Latin authors were also influenced by their Roman predecessors.

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Th is article discusses aspects of the communication between gods and humans in Valerius Flaccus' Flavian epic Argonautica by focusing on the situation of Jason and the Argonauts as well as on the Phineus episode in the fourth Book: although the gods in this poem, and Jupiter in particular, have specifi c plans for the fate of humans and the development of world history, they do not want humans to know those. As humans therefore receive only scattered and unclear information about the future, they remain uncertain and terrifi ed, while retaining their confi dence in the gods. Th e gods at least save humans from unnecessary, excessive suff ering and allow them to entertain an unspecifi c hope of improvement in the future. Hence Valerius Flaccus' depiction of the attitude of the gods to humans and of its consequences for the lives of humans diff ers, in diff erent ways, from both Apollonius Rhodius and Vergil and indicates how the poet interprets the general human condition. Recipients of the poem do get some idea of the larger framework in which the action is set (in contrast to characters), but the outlook remains gloomy.