Lucius Ambivius Turpio (often referred to simply as "Turpio") was an actor, stage manager, patron, promoter and entrepreneur in ancient Rome around the time of the playwright Terence, that is, around the 2nd century BC.[1] Formerly working with the playwright Caecilius Statius, and already known as a promoter of contemporary comic writers,[2] Turpio moved on to serve as the producer and lead actor in most if not all of Terence's plays.[3][4][5][6][7]

Career

In some ways, Turpio served as Terence's metatheatrical mouthpiece on stage.[8] In several of his plays Terence began with a prologue to the audience explaining his method of playwriting, ostensibly spoken by an actor in a manner suggesting a close relationship with the playwright. In at least two plays—Heauton Timorumenos (The Self-Tormentor) and Hecyra (The Mother-in-Law)—this speaker in the prologue explicitly identifies himself as Turpio.[8][9]

The general scholarly opinion is that it was Turpio who purchased all of Terence's pieces after they were put up for sale,[2] and his acting troupe that was the primary performer of most of Terence's works.[7]

References

  1. ↑ Brown, Peter George McCarthy (1996), "Ambivius Turpio, Lucius", in Hornblower, Simon; Spawforth, Anthony (eds.), Oxford Classical Dictionary (3rd ed.), /smith-bio/3526.html{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location (link) CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  2. 1 2 Slater, William J. (1996). Roman theater and society: E. Togo Salmon Conference papers I, Volume 1993. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. pp. 33–36. ISBN 0-472-10721-6.
  3. ↑ Didascaliae Terentianae
  4. ↑ Cicero, de Senectute 48
  5. ↑ Tacitus, Dialogus de Oratoribus 20
  6. ↑ Quintus Aurelius Symmachus, Epistles i. 25, x. 2
  7. 1 2 Marshall, C.W. (2006). The Stagecraft and Performance of Roman Comedy. New York City: Cambridge University Press. pp. 85–86. ISBN 0-521-86161-6.
  8. 1 2 Sharrock, Alison (2009). Reading Roman Comedy: Poetics and Playfulness in Plautus and Terence. New York City: Cambridge University Press. pp. 65–66, 74–75. ISBN 978-0-521-76181-9.
  9. ↑ Pucci, Joseph (1998). The Full-Knowing Reader: Allusion and the Power of the Reader in the Western Literary Tradition. New Haven: Yale University Press. pp. 97–98. ISBN 0-300-07152-3.
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