fabula praetexta
Sign in to saveThe praetexta or fabula praetexta was a genre of Latin tragedy introduced at Rome by Gnaeus Naevius in the third century BC. It dealt with historical Roman figures, in place of the conventional Greek myths. Subsequent writers of praetextae included Ennius, Pacuvius and Lucius Accius. The name refers to the toga praetexta, purple striped, that was the official dress of Roman magistrates and priests. It was mainly a Roman garment. The toga praetexta was also worn by Roman freeborn girls before they came of age.
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Vinony's link graph records 27 inbound references to fabula praetexta, and connects out to Roman Empire, International Standard Book Number and Ancient Rome.
It is catalogued under topics including Ancient Roman leisure, Ancient Roman theatre and History of theatre.
Vinony links it to 13 Wikipedia language editions.
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- theatrical genre
- Country
- Roman Republic
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- language of work or name
- Latin
- described by source
- Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary
Sources (1)
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Encyclopedic overview
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The praetexta or fabula praetexta was a genre of Latin tragedy introduced at Rome by Gnaeus Naevius in the third century BC. It dealt with historical Roman figures, in place of the conventional Greek myths. Subsequent writers of praetextae included Ennius, Pacuvius and Lucius Accius. The name refers to the toga praetexta, purple striped, that was the official dress of Roman magistrates and priests. It was mainly a Roman garment. The toga praetexta was also worn by Roman freeborn girls before they came of age.
All Roman Republican tragedies are now lost. From the Imperial era only one play has survived, the Octavia.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “fabula praetexta” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.