Gruppi, 'folle', popolo sulla scena comica terenziana

This essay analyses the dramatic and scenic role of groups of persons, people and crowds in the theatre of the Latin poet Terence. The exam of his comedies reveals how it's not rare to find in Terence, in contrast to the ancient rhetorical treatise, six or seven actors together on the stage with parodic, structural or rhetorical effects. Sometimes the main actors are followed by not quantificable groups of slaves, soldiers, or also chorister and flautists, especially during the last scene. Groups and people may also be evoked on stage by the protagonist's antinaturalistic acting. This feature, together with the metatheatrical role of the spectators that appears during the comedies'prologues, is perhaps Terence's main legacy to the European thetare of the following centuries.