Action! Quintilian’s orator between stage and pulpit

Abstract

Although Quintilian overpraises Menander (Inst. or. X, 1, 69-72 passim), his critiques of the authors of comoediae palliatae, Plautus, Caecilius and Terence, are remarkably severe (X, 1, 99-100): according to Quintilian, Roman comic production would not be more than a faint shadow (“leuem umbram”) of Greek comedy. This paper has two main objectives: (1) to gather evidence to ground Quintilian’s rejection of comedies written in Latin and, specifically, his rejection of the work of Plautus in the context of oratorical education; (2) to indicate the extent to which the speaker idealized by the rhetorician could (or should) use theatrical techniques in public speeches. In other words: where is the boundary of comedic humor in the Roman Forum drawn?