R.’s examination of the fabula togata is the best survey of the genre currently available in English and should remain so at least until the publication of J. Welsh’s anticipated Loeb volume in the Fragmentary Republican Latin series. Thorough and thoughtful, R. works hard to find meaning and patterns in a shadowy genre that we struggle to understand. The majority of togata fragments survive without context in the fourth-century Latin grammarians Nonius Marcellus and Charisius. Consequently, to ensure as wide a readership as possible, every fragment is translated in a footnote the first time it is cited. Further, R. argues for specific aspects of ‘identity construction’; while not always persuasive, these elements are valuable for their firm belief that the study of fragmentary Latin can have an aim beyond simply establishing a text. The togata is seen, rightly, as an important part of the wider literary landscape.
The introduction presents a valuable survey of the literary and cultural landscape of the mid-Republic (pp. 20–33). The meagre biographical details of the three principal authors of the genre, Titinius, Afranius and Atta, are presented in Chapter 1 (pp. 39–54). R. argues that all three are likely natives of Rome from elite families, not immigrants or people formerly enslaved (‘for the first time in the history of Roman literature, authors who may have been native to the city of Rome engaged in theatrical writing’, p. 50). Certainty is impossible given the evidence, and this claim will demand further assessment. This is not to say that the authors represent a force of resistance to the other literature of the period, which seems to draw principally, though not entirely, on Greek models. Rather, R. presents the togata authors as employing a different form of literary domestication than is seen in, for example, the palliata of Plautus and Terence.
The chapter continues with an attempt to understand the nature of a togata performance. The name suggests that the Roman setting was established by costume, which R. does not accept (p. 188). Pressing ancient sources (not all of which need to come from authors with access to complete plays) for further refinement is less successful. There is no need to decide between ancient definitions (pp. 54–70), when they can be made commensurate with each other: a togata was a play, a type of comedy, typically set in the Roman world, that established a tone, as Seneca uniquely observed (Sen. Epist. 8.8), between tragedy and comedy, with ‘comedy’ understood as the Greek-derived comedy of the palliata. To argue that the meaning of the term togata is uncertain may be true for readers today, but it was not for Cicero and Horace. There is no reason not to believe that the genre’s name emerged on analogy with the palliata and accurately reflected the (contemporary modern Roman) costumes used.
The chapter concludes with an extended examination of the Roman-ness of the togata, expanded from a 2020 article. R. argues that the plays are set not in Rome, but in the Roman (Italian) world (pp. 74–85). This too is not fully convincing: a play such as Titinius’ Setina (‘The Woman from Setia’, a Latin colony near the Appian Way), does not need to be set in that town any more than Terence’s Andria is set on Andros (Titin. Tog. 106 R.3 would then indicate that the speaker believes her to be more marriageable than other Setian women, not that this is the play’s setting; see pp. 78–9). Though the evidence can be pressed too far, R. establishes that the plays recognise the wider Italian world and need not be set in Rome.
Chapter 2 examines the stock characters attested in the togata fragments. While a single instance does not establish the conventional nature of a particular figure, the picture R. develops is rich: evidence is attested for the figures of meretrix, anus, ancilla, nutrix and (it is argued) a less caricatured presentation of the uxor dotata (pp. 95–112). Additionally, female characters not seen in the palliata appear: matertera (‘maternal aunt’), fratria (‘sister-in-law’) and iurisperita (‘woman skilled in law’) are discussed (pp. 112–16). It would strengthen the conclusions to recognise the generational position of these roles: the dowered wife of the palliata is married to a senex, the wives of younger men are less outspoken. The results for male characters are similar: adulescens amans, servus, parasitus, leno and senex are all attested, but there is evidence for new character types, including professionals such as hairdresser, augur, fuller and pastry-cook (pp. 117–26). Slave names in the togata ‘are neither stereotypical nor invented’ (p. 120), even if there is no speech among the fragments that can clearly be ascribed to a slave (p. 121 n. 251). At the same time, R.’s chains of speculation can erode the confidence readers find in any of his conclusions (e.g. p. 92, ‘was apparently … would seem to be … one may cautiously argue … might reveal …’).
A survey of play titles is similarly revelatory. While Titinius and Atta apparently named their plays after female characters more often than they did after male characters, Afranius has significantly more titles named after men (pp. 89–92). This observation is developed further at the end of Chapter 2, when R. identifies the large number of togata titles that may have parallels in Greek sources: ‘the authors of the togata may have been very likely influenced by the repertoire of themes, situations, and characters that was widely established in Greek Middle and New Comedy’ (p. 128, and see pp. 126–9). This connection, suggestive but not proven, posits that the togata adapted elements from Greek comedy in a way parallel to, but different from, the process of adaptation evidenced in the palliata. If corroborated, this would represent a significant advance on the understanding of the reception of Greek comedy in antiquity.
The final chapter provides a detailed survey of the lexicon evident in the togata fragments, which reinforces the understanding of the ‘Roman-ness’ of the genre. Ancient sources characterise the diction as clear, graceful and eloquent (pp. 131–49). R. details the hapax legomena and the first times that words are attested in Latin (pp. 151–73), and he catalogues the low number of Greek loanwords (pp. 173–7) and the apparent low impact of Plautine vocabulary on the togata authors (pp. 178–85).
The resulting picture of the togata is rich and unexpected: the genre draws on Greek literary models and presents humorous theatre with a pure elegance in an Italian setting. The genre is positioned as ‘a sort of sister to Roman satire’ (p. 193), with both genres creating a sense of aristocratic identity that emphasised Roman indigeneity.
R. has done much to interpret the fabula togata and provided a foundation for future research.
