Comparing Greek and Roman Audience Preferences for Entertainment

Abstract

Greek and Roman Audiences The Greek and Roman audiences differed in their preferences and taste concerning entertainment. Unlike the Roman audiences, the Greek audiences were talkative and unruly, whose silence defined their attentive approach towards a given entertainment (Hager and Fragkou, 2017). The fact that the Greek audiences were talkative made them express their immediate attitude towards a play without fear or hesitations. For instance, if the Greek audiences disliked a specific play, their immediate reaction was to drum their heels on the benches, throw fruits to interrupt the players, or jeer loudly. Such reactions lead to disruptions that would lead to the termination of the play in search of an alternative play that would suit the Greek audiences' interest. However, Greek audiences were categorized through social classes. The rich enjoyed the front cushioned seats; peasants, artisans, and women became restricted from occupying the front seats but instead forced to take the back seats in any given play. Drama served as the primary entertainment mode within Greek and became categorized through three genres; comedy, satyr plays, and tragedy. The Greeks' love for drama defines the nature of the origin of the unruly and talkative characteristics of its audiences since the three genres were too entertaining for a soft-silent audience to handle, as expressed by the Romans. They preferred entertainment and performance over tragedy and drama. Unlike in the Greek audience arrangement in the theatre, where social class defined the settings, Roman audiences sitting arrangements were defined through gender. Regardless of whether poor or rich, men were given priority, with women and slaves sharing the same sitting positions. The fact that the Romans audience favored performances and written plays over drama defines the origin of more modern theatres within the Roman empire than the traditional theatres that...