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The Rape of The Sabines

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

A. E. Wardman
A. E. Wardman
Affiliation:
University of Reading
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Extract

According to the Ars Amatoria the notorious rape took place on the occasion of a primitive dramatic entertainment staged in a theatre, in which the seats and furnishings were also primitive. There is no time for a description of the arts of the performers—a tibicen and a ludius—before the Romans, impatient for action, receive their signal from Romulus. Nor is there any mention of a god in whose honour the entertainment had been provided.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 15 , Issue 1 , May 1965 , pp. 101 - 103
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1965

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References

page 101 note 1 According to Livy 7. 2. 3 the tibicen and ludius did not reach Rome till 364 B.C. This obscure and difficult chapter mentions incidentally that the Circus was prior to the dramatic spectacle—nam circi modo spectaculum fuerat.

page 101 note 2 See Fowler, W. Warde, The Roman Festivals, pp. 206 ff.Google Scholar

page 101 note 3 … virgines, quae Romam ludorum gratia venissent, quos turn primum anniversaries in circo facere instituisset, Consualibus rapi iussit … Cf. Varro, , de lingua Latino 6. 20.Google Scholar

page 101 note 4 The phrase was explicitly borrowed to annotate the Delphin A.A., in spite of the fact that the incident occurs in a theatre.

page 101 note 5 Romulus 14Google Scholar. For Fabius Pictor see Piganiol, A., Les Jeux Romains (1923), pp. 15 ff.Google Scholar

page 101 note 6 Cf. also Vergil, , Aen. 8. 635–6. The difference was already noticed by Brandt; see his edition of the A.A., Anhang, p. 209. It is worth noticing that Ovid's stage is made of boughs from the Palatine, the hill near the Circus Maximus, whereas the theatres in Ovid's time were all some distance from the Palatine. This remark may, therefore, be a trace of the usual view of the Romulean games, namely that they occurred in the Circus.Google Scholar

page 102 note 1 Romulus is said to have instituted bellicrepam saltationem, ne simile pateretur, quod fecerat ipse, cum a ludis Sabinorum virgines rapuit. See Paulus, , p. 31, Lindsay.Google Scholar

page 102 note 2 See esp. Tac, . Ann. 14Google Scholar. 20 for criticism of Pompey's theatre. There was also criticism of the elegant temporary theatres of Scaurus and Curio: see Pliny, N.H. 36Google Scholar. 113. A theatre was planned in 155 B.C., but was opposed by the eximia civitatis severitas et consul Scipio (Velleius Paterculus, 1. 15. 3). Sulla is taken to task by Plutarch for passionate ceillades in the theatre, even though they led to marriage. See Plutarch, , Sulla 35; the chapter is also useful on the question of separate seats for different groups.Google Scholar

page 102 note 3 See the brilliant description in the A.A. 1. 135 ff., an account which is probably based on Amores 3. 2Google Scholar. For seating in the Circus cf.Juvenal, , 11Google Scholar. 202—quos cultae decet adsedisse puellae. Cf. Ovid, , Tristia 2. 284.Google Scholar

page 102 note 4 Cf. Propertius, 4. 8. 77.

page 103 note 1 Suetonius, , Augustus 44Google Scholar ff. For the so called Lex Iulia Theatralis see Daremberg-Saglio, , v. 304Google Scholar, and cf. Companion to Latin Studies, p. 519Google Scholar. Suetonius, Augustus 60, and Pliny, , N.H. 33. 32, seem to refer to the equites.Google Scholar