Decimus Laberius
The Fragments

First English translation of and detailed commentary on the fragments of the important playwright Laberius.

Costas Panayotakis (Edited by)

9780521885232, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 11 February 2010

544 pages
22.2 x 14.9 x 3 cm, 0.86 kg

This is a newly revised, critical text of the fragments attributed to the Roman knight and mimographer Decimus Laberius, a witty and crudely satirical contemporary of Cicero and Caesar. Laberius is perhaps the most celebrated comic playwright of the late Republic, and the fragments of plays attributed to him comprise the overwhelming majority of the extant evidence for what we conventionally call 'the literary Roman mime'. The volume also includes a survey of the characteristics and development of the Roman mime, both as a literary genre and as a type of popular theatrical entertainment, as well as a re-evaluation of the place of Laberius' work within its historical and literary context. This is the first English translation of all the fragments, and the first detailed English commentary on them from a linguistic, metrical, and (wherever possible) theatrical perspective.

Introduction
1. Defining the Roman mime
2. Origins and chronological development of the genre
3. Testimonia on Laberius
4. Facts and problems
5. Laberius' language and themes
6. Laberius' prosody
7. The history of the text of Laberius' mimes
8. An overview of the anthologies containing Laberius' mimes
Sigla codicum
The fragments
Text
Translation
Commentary
Appendices.

Subject Areas: Classical history / classical civilisation [HBLA1], Literary studies: classical, early & medieval [DSBB]