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Women, homosexuals, fat people, stutterers, doctors, intellectuals, Gauls, Syrians or Hispanics: no one escaped the often cruel laughter of the Romans.
© Bridgeman Pictures
By Pascal Montlahuc*
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To Rome, we knew how to laugh. Contrary to what we still too often read, the inhabitants of the Roman Empire were not characterized by this gravitas (“spirit of seriousness”) that ancient historiography continues to present as a model used to differentiate virtuous Romans from decadent (non-)Romans. On the contrary, we appreciate, both under the republic and under the principate, jokes, proverbs, poems and other songs that are mocking, parodic, caricatural or bawdy. Laughter is omnipresent from the beginning of IIe century BC, in the plays of Plautus (c. 260-184 BC), which feature boastful soldiers, libidinous women or cunning slaves, as well as in the Ve century AD, in the Saturnalia of Macrobi…
Laughter – The great texts of the Greeks and Romans
8,90€
Laughing was more than a hobby among the Greeks and Romans, it was a way of life. The Ancients were convinced of this: laughter was the essence of man and one should not deprive oneself of it. So let’s laugh with Aristophanes, Menander, Lucian, Plautus, Apuleius and even Homer. Let’s laugh with the Point References, to live better.
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