Laughter in Ancient Rome
Page 46
sanniones, 262n52; Cicero on, 168
Sarmentus (scurra), 68, 143, 255n48; meddlesomeness of, 153
Satellius Quadratus, 151, 257n88
Sather Lectures, ix, 211
satire, Roman, 68; psycho-social dynamics of, 41
Saturnalia (festival), 62–65, 235n41; Aulus Gellius on, 236n49; Bakhtin on, 62–63, 65, 235n43; the carnivalesque in, 235n47; and Christmas, 63; costume of, 63, 65; elites’ participation in, 236n49; feasting in, 64, 236nn49,55; free speech in, 64, 235n46, 237n56; as inversionary ritual, 63, 65, 235n47; king of, 64, 235n42, 236n54; paternalism in, 65; Pliny the Elder on, 237n56; role reversal in, 63, 64, 235n44; social equality in, 65. See also Macrobius, Saturnalia
satyrs, rictus of, 57
Scaliger, on Virgil’s fourth Eclogue, 241n54
Schlam, C. C., 268n130
Schofield, Malcolm, 227n40
scholastikos: Cicero as, 190; laughable qualities of, 190–91
scholastikos jokes, 185–86, 190–91, 268n4, 270nn24,25; about dreams, 197; about teachers, 192; datable, 189; family life in, 198; identity in, 200; lost point of, 272n45; mimic themes of, 271n40; numbers in, 199, 269n7; Sidon in, 271n34; standard lines in, 271n38; told on themselves, 194; visual images in, 194
Schulz, F., 274n67
Scipio Nasica, jokes about, 200, 270n23
Scott, Sophie, 229n62
Scruton, Roger, 47, 229n63
sculpture, ancient: laughter in, 57
Scurr, Ruth, 237n62
scurrae, 152–55; as antitypes of dicacitas, 249n56; Christian instance of, 154–55; comparison with orators, 121–22, 129; competition with peasant, 126; cultural longevity of, 155; in Horace, 204; jokes of, 103, 118, 121, 124, 152, 153; murder of Elagabalus, 154; and parasites, 153; in Plautus, 153, 258n99; positive valuation of, 154; Quintilian on, 124; in Roman imaginary, 154; in Roman literature, 153–54; “Romanness” of, 153; social role of, 153; varied usages of, 258nn98,101
scurrilitas: accusations against Cicero, 152–53, 246n15; pride in, 155; victims of, 147
Semus (historian), 174, 264n81
senators, Roman: stifling of laughter, 2–3, 6
Seneca the Elder, 246n14; Cicero’s jokes in, 103; laughter in, 79–81; on Vatinius, 122
Seneca the Younger: Apocolocyntosis, 64, 235n45, 236n50; on Caligula, 134; on jesters, 145; use of arridere, 150–51
Serapeum, destruction of, 269n17
Serenus Sammonicus, 224n6
Servius, on mime, 263n54
sesērenai (parting of lips), 6
sex, discursive practices surrounding, 67
Sharrock, A., 223n49
Sicily, slave revolts in, 152, 258n94
Sidon, jokes about, 191–92, 269n7, 271n34
Silk, Michael, 31, 226n31
Silverne, Stephen, 276n4
simia (monkey), and similis, 162, 261nn26–27. See also monkeys
Skinner, Quentin, 30–31, 33, 225n22; on Hobbes, 41
skōmma (joking), 76, 207; abusive, 32
slave revolts, Sicilian, 152, 258n94
slaves, relations with masters, 137–40
Smallwood, E. M., 254nn42,44, 255n46
smiles: archaic, 57, 233n20; Chesterfield on, 75, 240n22; cultural significance of, 74; Greek vocabulary for, 73, 239n13; Latin vocabulary for, 73–76; in Macrobius, 73–74, 75, 239n16; medieval, 75; in modern European languages, 74; Mona Lisa‘s, 233n22; in Roman culture, 74–76; in Virgil, 73, 84
Smith, M., 229n62
social hierarchy: effect on laughter, 28; inversion of, 63, 65, 235n47, 264n72
Socrates: facial expression of, 25; subversive repartee of, 153
soldiers, Caesar’s: jokes of, 146, 231n4
Soli (Cilicia), laughter associated with, 177
Sommerstein, A., 257n86
Sonnabend, H., 240n30
Sparta, culture of laughter in, 93–94
Spawforth, Tony, 91
speeches, epilogues of, 125
spleen, role in laughter, 25, 29, 224n6
spongers. See parasites
statues, Greek: non-smiling, 30
Stoicism, Cicero’s jokes on, 102
Strabo (geographer): on Kyme, 191, 192, 271n31; on monkeys, 164–65
Strabo, Julius Caesar: in On the Orator, 108, 109, 110, 111, 113, 116, 120, 223n1, 249nn58,61
subjects, laughter at experimenters, 229n58
subridere (to laugh), 73, 75
Suda, 269n10; on Philogelos, 188
Suetonius, 73; on Caesar’s joking, 252n2; on Caligula, 134; on Claudius’s quips, 132; on copreae, 143; Life of Augustus, 134; mimicry in, 263n64; on Vespasian, 133–34, 146
Sulla: love of laughter, 129–30, 207; satyric comedies of, 130
Sybarites, jokes on, 206, 275n80
Tacitus: on German laughter, 52; on Nero, 236n54; on ridicule, 232n6
Tarentines, laughter at Romans, 4, 6, 220n10
Terence: modern translations of, 16; stage directions for, 16
—The Eunuch: adaptation of Menander, 90–91; adridere in, 71–72; audience reaction to, 15–17; causes of laughter in, 11–12, 14; characters of, 9–10; Donatus on, 12, 13, 221n30, 222n38, 223n47; flattery in, 141; Greek jokes in, 89–91; jokes of, 9–12, 14, 18, 176–77, 205, 222n37; parasite of, 10–11, 12, 90, 148, 221n29; performances of, 221n28; popularity of, 8, 221n26; scripted laughter in, 8–11, 14, 16; sources of, 243n74
—Heauton Timorumenus, scripted laughter in, 16–17
Tertullian: on Crassus the agelast, 178; on mime, 168
Testamentum Porcelli, 266n98
theater, Roman, 8; during Megalesia festival, 9; “monkey business” of, ix; oratory and, 251n82. See also comedy, Roman; mime
theatergoers, ancient: shared experiences of, 15
Theocritus, 242n60
Theophrastus: De aquis, 224n12; Pliny the Elder’s use of, 26–27, 30
Thierfelder, A., 269n7, 272n50
Thomas, Keith, 59, 61, 234n29; on continuity of laughter, 66; on early English laughter, 50; on hearing laughter, 52; Neale Lecture of, 231n3
threats, laughter at, 2–3
Tiberius, Emperor: banquets of, 145; court jesters of, 143, 144–45, 256n63; stinginess of, 153
tickling, 39; Aristotle on, 35; Darwin-Hecker hypothesis of, 230n74; Pliny the Elder on, 25, 34–35; in Problems, 43, 230n73; of rats, 47; social conditions of, 43
Tiro, compendium of Cicero’s jokes, 104, 246n17
Titius Maximus, 139, 254n39
toadies. See parasites
tombs, jokes on, 189, 270n21
totalitarianism: laughter in, 225n26; resistance through laughter, 5, 30, 220n17
Tractatus Coislinianus, on comedy, 31, 225nn28–29
Trajan, Emperor: civilitas of, 131
Trebonius, Gaius, 104
Trollope, Anthony: death from laughter, 177, 265n92
Trophonius, oracle: loss of laughter at, 174–75
truth and falsehood, in Roman laughter, 125–26, 129
Tunbridge Wells, jokes about, 271n30
Turnbull, Colin, 231n79; The Forest People, 45–46
Twain, Mark, 56; A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, 53
tyrants: control of laughter, 134; jokes of, 129, 130
Tzetzes, John, 269n9; use of Philogelos, 187
the unexpected, laughter at, 117–18
urbanitas: changing ideas of, 250n67; Cicero’s, 103; Domitius Marsus on, 124; Quintilian on, 125
urbanus sal, 126, 252n107
urine, in fulling industry, 196, 272n52
Valerius Maximus, 266n112; on death by laughter, 177; jokes in, 214, 252n10
Vatinius: Cicero’s attack on, 106, 122–23, 251n89; jokes on himself, 251n101; relationship with Cicero, 122–23, 251n90
Vatinius (court jester), 143
Velleius Paterculus, History of Rome, 189
Venus, laughter of, 81
Verrius Flaccus, 264n73; on Zeuxis, 172–73
Versnel, H. S., 235n44
Vespasian, Emperor: civilitas of, 130;
dicacitas of, 153; funeral procession of, 146, 256n72; jocularity of, 133–34
Victoria, Queen, 237n60
Virgil: Diocletian’s quoting of, 13; words for laughter, 75; words for smiles, 73
—Aeneid: interpretation of Homeric laughter, 88–89; laughter in, 81
—Eclogue 4: Christian readings of, 84; laughter in, 81–85; manuscript tradition of, 83, 242nn54,64; Quintilian on, 83; Renaissance readings of, 241n54; smiling in, 84; textual emendations to, 82–83; translations of, 84, 242n59
—Eclogues: mime parodies of, 169, 263n57
visual images, ancient: of laughter, 49, 56–59, 162–63, 165, 166, 233n24; religious, 175
Vitalis (mime actor), 169
Vollgraff, C. G., 267n127
Volumnius Eutrapelus, Publius, 105, 113
Wallace-Hadrill, Andrew, 91, 274n67; Rome’s Cultural Revolution, 87
Walsh, P. G., 266n104
Warner, Marina, 85
water, laughter-causing, 25–26
West, S., 271n39
Whigham, Peter, 171
Whitehead, A. N., 225n24
whoopee cushions, Elagabalus’s use of, 77, 128
Wilkins, J., 275n81
Wilkins, A. S., 249n55
Winkler, Jack: Auctor & Actor, 181, 183
wit: collections of, 204, 206; construction of identity through, 247n29; as educated insolence, 33; moralizing, 206; Peripatetic terms for, 249n65; Sicilian, 204. See also jokes
wit, Athenian, 94–95, 204; Cicero on, 244n93; Roman admiration for, 94
wit, Roman: Cicero’s, 100–108; collections of, 202; desirable types of, 115; salsum, 115; typology of, 114, 250nn67,69; vocabulary for, 76
wit, Roman oratorical: analogies with cookery, 124; changing terms for, 114; Cicero’s deployment of, 105–8; dicto and re, 112, 113, 123; in epilogues of speeches, 125; exploitation of names, 120; forms of, 111, 113–15; inappropriate use of, 103–4, 112–13, 118–19, 123, 129; old Latin terms for, 111, 249n54; in On the Orator, 111–15; Quintilian on, 123–26; restraint in, 120–21; rules for using, 112–13, 117, 120–21, 122; spontaneous, 111, 127, 249n55. See also laughter, Roman oratorical
Wittgenstein, Ludwig, 229n64
women, giggling, 3, 157, 219n7
women, Roman: dimples of, 158, 259n8; jokes of, 156; mime actresses, 159, 167–68, 171, 264n66; in pantomime, 255n62. See also laughter, Roman women’s
women, Spartan: use of ridicule, 93
Wyatt, Woodrow, 276n4
Wyles, R., 262n50
Xanthus (master of Aesop), 138–39
Xenophon, Symposium, 257n81; parasite of, 149
Xerxes, at the Hellespont, 134, 253n20
Zeno of Sidon, 153, 258n96
Zeuxis: competition with Parrhasius, 173; death from laughter, 14, 172–73, 177; illusionism of, 173, 234n24
Zimmerman, A., 266n107, 267n113
Žižek, Slavoj, 220n17, 225n26
Zoroaster, laughter of, 25, 83, 242n56