The Greek-Roman Theatre in the Mediterranean Area

Maria Rosaria D’acierno Canonici Cammino

This paper, dealing with the Greek-Roman theatres, aims to focus on four main issues: 1) the origin and the evolution of the theatre and its social role within the Mediterranean area (Milizia); 2) the importance of the Greek and Roman cultures, which, while conquering new lands, spread their culture, too (Mazzarino); 3) how theatres evolved under the Greeks, and under the Roman Empire (Neppi Modona), and 4) to prove that war, not only destroys people, but, moreover, destroys the entire world. Piro considers war any behavior that tries to subdue people by negating their rights, their religion, and their culture. [1]

The fusion of the Greek and Roman cultures left their signs whenever and wherever they arrived. The Greek-Roman theatres are an example of the importance of fusing cultures; a fusion which enriches both the people conquered and the people conquering.

While talking about drama, as the expression of social aggregation, Milizia writes: “The Greeks and the Romans are the only people who really knew the very spirit of society.” [2]

In order to follow its aim, this research wants to give a quick look at the first inhabitants of the Mediterranean coast, so as to understand how trade helped them to share both goods and culture.

History is a very important subject, not simply for acquiring information, but, moreover, for getting new experiences from past events. We say that grandparents are a great resource, because they provide children with advice which can help them when something new has to be solved. This is also the role of history, to judge the results of people’s behaviour when facing political problems. For this reason, talking about the peoples who lived around the Mediterranean Sea, admiring their archaeological sites, and studying the history of their age will facilitate the understanding of the context in which those peoples lived and had to make important decisions. In so doing, it will be easier to judge the results of their actions, and acquire experience from them.

In brief, even though war had at first appeared a means to solve problems related to wellness, patriotism, motherland, goods exchange, religion, language, etc., at last, the great conquerors of the past understood that cooperation among peoples is the best way to achieve prosperity both economically and culturally. Nowadays, we are surrounded by wars in every angle of the world, as if it were the first time that a country refuses to share a land, or refuses to accept foreigners, or complains about either a political or religious creed.

So that, during this journey of mine, among the mediterranean peoples of the past, I learned a great lesson; a lesson I hope to transfer to you; a lesson I could understand while admiring the archaeological remains left all around the Mediterranean Sea. So, while looking at them, I realized that those wonders are the result

of cooperation and not of hate among peoples of different language, religion and culture; peoples, who at last, understood that war, as Pope Francesco says, is a defeat for everybody.

“With war, a senseless and inconclusive venture, no one emerges a winner; everyone ends up defeated, because war, right from the beginning, is already a defeat, always.

Let us listen to those who suffer its consequences, the victims and those who have lost everything. Let us hear the cry of the young, of ordinary individuals and peoples, who are weary of the rhetoric of war and the empty slogans that constantly put the blame on others, dividing the world into good and evil, weary of leaders who find it difficult to sit at a table, negotiate and find solutions.” [3]

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