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Theatricality of Naumachiae Bachelor’S Diploma Thesis

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Theatricality of Naumachiae Bachelor’S Diploma Thesis Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of Theatre Studies Bachelor’s Diploma Thesis 2018 Lucia Steltenpohlová Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of Theatre Studies Theatre Theory and History Lucia Steltenpohlová Theatricality of Naumachiae Bachelor’s Diploma Thesis Supervisor: Mgr. Eliška Poláčková, Ph. D. 2018 Declaration Hereby I declare that this paper is my original authorial work, which I have worked out on my own. All sources, references, and literature used or excerpted during elaboration of this work are properly cited and listed in complete reference to the due source. Lucia Steltenpohlová i ii Acknowledgement I would like to thank my supervisor, Mgr. Eliška Poláčková Ph.D., for all her professional support and enthusiasm with which she guided me throughout the process of research as well as writing of this thesis, for all the corrections and comments, for her patience. To all the staff of the department of Theatre studies for constantly broadening my horizons. A big thank you to my friends, namely the wonderful future doctor Simona Halajová and German language mage Bc. Andrea Bukovská, who had to listened to my theatre talk and did not complain the least bit. To Bc. Viktor Solík, for using his remarkable informatics skills to help me in the process of putting the formalities of this thesis together (and for teaching me that there are far too many names for brackets). To Michal Solčiansky, for cooking for me when I needed it the most. Last but not least a huge thanks to my family, for all that you have done and still do for me. iii iv Contents Declaration ................................................................................................................ i Acknowledgement ................................................................................................ iii 1 Introduction ....................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Evaluation of Sources .................................................................................. 5 1.2 Naumachiae: in Search of a Suitable Term .................................................. 7 2 The Performative Context ............................................................................... 9 2.1 Staged Naval Combat in History ............................................................... 10 3 The Venues ....................................................................................................... 11 3.1 The Early Structures .................................................................................. 11 3.2 Lake Fucinus .............................................................................................. 13 3.3 The Amphitheatre ...................................................................................... 13 3.3.1 The Colosseum ................................................................................................... 14 4 The Performers ................................................................................................ 17 4.1 The Combatants ......................................................................................... 17 4.2 The Guards ................................................................................................ 19 4.3 The Emperor .............................................................................................. 21 4.4 The Triton .................................................................................................. 22 4.5 The Audience ............................................................................................. 24 5 The Props .......................................................................................................... 27 5.1 The Costume .............................................................................................. 27 5.1.1 Costume of the Combatants ....................................................................... 28 5.1.2 The Emperor’s Clothes ............................................................................... 28 5.2 The Sound – Military Signals ................................................................... 29 5.3 The Ships .................................................................................................... 31 6 The Script .......................................................................................................... 33 6.1 The Beginning ............................................................................................ 34 6.1.1 The Pompa .................................................................................................. 34 6.1.2 Introduction of the Combatants and the Context of the Performance ....... 35 6.1.3 The Dialogue .............................................................................................. 36 6.2 The Battle ................................................................................................... 38 6.3 The Ending ................................................................................................ 40 v 7 The Dramaturgy .............................................................................................. 41 7.1 The Celebration of the Triumph ................................................................. 41 7.2 Extravaganza as a Manifestation of Power ............................................... 42 7.3 Deities and Deification of Roman Emperors ............................................. 44 7.4 The Themes ................................................................................................ 44 7.4.1 Historical Themes ...................................................................................... 45 7.4.2 Fictional Themes ........................................................................................ 48 8 Summary ........................................................................................................... 51 Bibliography .......................................................................................................... 55 vi 1 Introduction The staged naval combats, naumachiae, were extravagant naval spectacles that featured several thousand involuntary performers and even greater numbers of spectators. These extravagant water-shows were a demonstration of the power of the Emperor as well as a precious gift to the spectators. Naval spectacles taking place in Rome from 46 BC (Caesar’s triumphal games) up until 80 AD (Titus’ inauguration of the Colosseum) will be the subject of the analysis in this work. The naumachiae were incorporated into the frame of ludi. The ludi can be divided into two major categories: ludi circenses and ludi scaenici. Ludi circenses, located in the Circus, would feature not only the popular chariot races, but also gladiatorial combat and later on also naumachiae. Ludi scaenici primarily involved artistic representations of the world, such as theatre productions, recitations of poetry, singing contests and similar and, thus, would have been in great opposition to the ludi circenses in which the performers would have been harmed in the course of the performance. The naumachiae, however, represented a slight shift from the principles of ludi circenses. Their content, the struggle between two opposing teams, became largely theatricalized, more than in the other shows, perhaps except for the gladiatorial combat. This shift of naumachiae towards the principles of ludi scaenici can be seen mainly seen in the fact that the performers were assigned collective roles for the performance. The accounts state a general opposition of two teams who represented two opposing nations during the naval combat. The assigned nationality of the prisoners, however, did not necessarily correspond with their actual nationality. In order to better represent the individual collective roles, decoration of the ships and possibly even the armor of the combatants would have been in place. The assignment of roles and usage of props are usually the domain of theatre, which makes the naval battles an interesting phenomenon on the verge of sport and theatrical event. A similar phenomenon, the mythological re-enactments, was staged in Colosseum in the 1 1 Introduction times of Domitian; however, these shows usually feature only one performer. Although these mythological performances primarily concentrated on the individual, the common grounds with naumachiae is evident as the condemned were forced to re-enact the myths and assume the roles of the mythological figures as for example the myth of Leander staged in the Colosseum as Coleman informs.1 Elaborate scaenography and the costuming of the combatants(s) would have been used to create the environment of the myths. In this work, the staged naval combats will be analysed as cultural performances. Erika Fisher-Lichte states that “culture is brought forth as and in performances – not only in performance of the different arts but also, and foremost in performances of rituals, festivals, political rallies, sport competition, fashion shows and the like”.2 In accordance with the definition, spectacles of Ancient Rome would definitely be considered manifestations of the Roman culture. It is possible to argue that much of the culture of Imperial Rome was constituted by the ludi, as a wide range of games and spectacles had been held throughout the year.3 These ludi were associated with various deities such as the “Ludi Plebeii (for Jupiter), Ludi Apollinaires (for Apollo), Ludi Megalenses (for the great mother) and
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