Rome was a huge and very complex system of different peoples, nations, cities and towns that at its most successful spanned the entire Mediterranean Sea from Spain to Turkey and went north as far as France and South as far as Upper (south) Egypt. Rome was first a republic, meaning a government ruled with the people involved in making the decisions. Then in 48 b.c.e., Gaius Julius Caesar was appointed absolute ruler or emperor of all of Rome and Rome became a vast empire that held reign over the western world until it finally broke apart around 400 a.d.
Although Rome was made up of as diverse groups of people as the Egyptians to the British, the traditions of the Roman Theatre were based upon Greek Ideas. The Romans took the work of Greek Playwrights and translated them into Latin. They took the idea of the ampitheatre and made them bigger and more glamourous. The Romans loved spectacles of every sort, horse races, pyrotechnic displays, extreme fighting, showgirls- things that the Greeks would not have dared tarnish their rituals with. Roman Theatre is also where we are introduced to the idea of the stock character. Stock characters are stereotypes: different types of people who fit into a certain mold. In Roman theatre, we have stock characters like the flirty maid, the mean old man, the gossipy old woman, the bragging soldier and the smart servant. These stock characters were like our present day sitcom characters and Roman audiences waited for their favorites to appear on the stage.
