The objective of this course is the acquaintance with the Roman drama (birth, Greek influence, Italian drama) and the exploitation of Roman Comedy of the archaic ere (dramaturgy of Plautus and Terence) and of Roman Tragedy of the silver era (dramaturdy of Seneca the younger). Concurrent aims are: a) the gain of knowledge in the Plautine –“barbaric” comedy, through the study of The Miles Gloriosus, b) in the Terentian –humanistic- comedy, through the study of The Eunuch, c) in the Senecan tragedy, through the study of Medea, d) in connection to Greek plays (New Comedy and Medea of Euripides) , and e) emphasizing on the technical features of the plays and the stagecraft of the writers.

After the completion of the course, students will be able to:

• use the comic terminology (Greek and Latin);
• interpret the dramaturgical features of Plautus, Terence and Seneca; 
• discuss on the theme, the motives and the distinctive features of Roman Comedy; 
• comment on subjects related to Roman drama, such us, serious comedy, comic types, comic motives (e.g. relation of father-son, counter of city-village), the parallel and the converse scenes, the meta-theatre, the double-motiv etc;
• use the bibliography on New and Roman Comedy and on the tragedy of Seneca; 
• understand the challenges and the difficulties connected to the translation of the Latin comic and tragic language to modern Greek (and other languages); 
• decode the rules of the technique of each play writer and the ways the comic of tragic outcome is produced;
• discuss on the perfomative aspect of the Senecan dramas.