Terence’s prologue to his play Hecyra describes two prior attempts at its performance. Those attempts were aborted due to crowds seeking other spectacles. The first performance, scheduled for about 165 BCE, was aborted by an in-rushing crowd responding to a rumor of a boxing match being staged, with perhaps a display of a tightrope walker. A second performance was similarly aborted by a rumor of a gladiator show. The actual leader of the actors, Lucius Ambivius Turpio, spoke the prologue. Terence’s highly rhetorical prologue to Hecyra probably isn’t factual history. But it probably depicts realistically basic structures of competition for attention in the Hellenistic world.

As Terence’s prologue suggests, theatrical events and gladiator shows sometimes occurred within the same space. The arrangement of spectators at chariot races and gladiator shows generally was more promiscuous than seating at the theater. During most of the Roman Republic, men and women spectators were not segregated at chariot races and gladiator shows, but they apparently were within the theater.^

Terence’s prologue is best interpreted with respect to the popularity of other spectacles such as chariot races and gladiator shows. The second attempt at performing Hecyra was at the funeral for Aemilius Paullus. Paullus’s sons spent at least 180,000 denarii to arrange gladiator shows for this funeral. The gladiators were probably paid much more than the 8,000 dinarii that Terence earned for his highly successful Eunuchus.^ By about 50 BCE, the Circus Maximus could hold 150,000 or more spectators. Odeons, buildings typically used for singing competitions, generally were much smaller than venues for chariot racing and gladiator shows.

Terence’s plays were popular relative to other plays, but apparently not relative to other spectacles. Good evidence exists that Terence was relatively popular and successful among playwrights.^ A scholar has stated, “the fight for places implies, as Terence no doubt intended, a crowded theater.”^ Yet the crowd that pushed in to interrupt Terence’s play implies that a large number of persons interested in a spectacle hadn’t entered to see the play. The fight for places doesn’t mean that the theater was crowded before the crowd flocked in. Moreover, Terence’s rhetorical use of place suggests a high-status (small) original audience.

Translations of the prologue have missed a nuance of difference in status. One relatively literal translation renders “comitum conventus” as “the crush of their supporters.”^ A looser translation, has “slaves were arriving.”^ Comitum seems to me best understood in relation to comitis and comitatus. Comitatus was band of warriors closely associated with the ruler and committed to fighting to the death for him. Comitatus was a key institution of Central Eurasia, which to the ancient Greeks was a land of barbarians.^ The crowd (comitatus) that rushed into the theater has the connotation of both powerful supporters of the ruler and barbarians. Terence’s status as a playwright relatively to that crowd focuses on perceived intellect and culture, not civic position and civic power.

The rhetorical structure of Terence’s prologue emphasizes self-definition within a cultural status hierarchy.^ A cultural status hierarchy doesn’t necessarily trump cross-status competition for attention.