Did you know that the Theatre of Marcellus was the biggest theatre in ancient Rome? The theatre was completed in the late 1st BCE under the power of the emperor, Augustus. The theatre was built by Augustus and Julius Caesar. The theatre was prevailing for awhile by holding events such as the Secular Games, but later lost its popularity. There were other things that the Roman citizens found more entertaining.

The theatre held the Secular Games which were very important to the Roman citizens. According to Ancient History Encyclopedia, the Secular Games were “...celebrations held in ancient Rome to mark the commencement of a new saeculum or generation.” and “The festival lasted three days and three nights during which sacrifices were made to …show more content…
According to Ancient History Encyclopedia, the theatre eventually failed due to gladiator games and circuses becoming more widespread. In the 11th and 12th century it was turned into a fortress by the Pierleone family. According to Ancient History Encyclopedia “Indeed, in the 4th century CE material from the theatre was used in other building projects.”
After gladiator games and circuses became more famous than the plays at the theatre, people stopped coming. Roman society was more interested in seeing things that were more exciting, specifically, gladiator games. They weren’t interested in seeing plays, musical contests, and poetry recitals anymore. War was very important to ancient Rome, so the theatre become a fortress. For that purpose, the theatre became less …show more content…
According to Crystalinks, Roman theatre consisted of street theatre, nude dancing, and acrobatics. In ancient Rome, there were two main playwrights: Livius Andronicus and Gnaeus Naevius. Theatre today typically consists of fictional plays, musical performances, historical fiction, and plays based off of books and there are playwrights all over the world. In ancient Roman theatre, there was a certain structure for every play. The plays were always either tragedies or comedies. In ancient Roman comedies, the characters were always the same. The adulescens was the hero who was generally young, rich, in love, and not very brave. The senex was the father who was always either too soft or too strict, but either one was out of love for his son. The leno runs the brothel. Sometimes the adulescens’ love interest was “owned” by the leno. The miles gloriosus is the soldier who only loves himself and thinks he is smart, but in reality, is not very bright. The parasitus is often begging for meals and never getting them. He lives just for himself. The servi are the slaves and are the half of the cast and have a lot of monologues. The ancilla is a maid or nurse who is a minor character. The virgo is the adulescens’ love interest who rarely gets stage time and is treated like a