The different classes into which the regular drama of this period may be reduced, is a subject involved in great contradiction and uncertainty, and has been much agitated in consequence of Horace’s celebrated line—
“Vel qui _Prætextas_ vel qui docuere _Togatas_(365).”
On the whole, it seems pretty evident, that the _regular_ drama was divided into tragedy and comedy. A tragedy on a Greek subject, and in which Greek manners were preserved, as the Hecuba, Dulorestes, &c. was simply styled _Tragœdia_, or sometimes _Tragœdia Palliata_. Those tragedies again, in which Roman characters were introduced, as the Decius and Brutus of Attius, were called _Prætextatæ_, because the Prætexta was the habit worn by Roman kings and consuls. The comedy which adopted Greek subjects and characters, like those of Terence, was termed _Comœdia_, or _Comœdia Palliata_; and that which was clothed in Roman habits and customs, was called _Togata_(366). Afranius was the most celebrated writer of this last class of dramas, which were probably Greek pieces accommodated to Roman manners, since Afranius lived at a period when Roman literature was almost entirely imitative. It is difficult, no doubt, to see how an Athenian comedy could be bent to local usages foreign to its spirit and genius; but the Latin writers were not probably very nice about the adjustment; and the _Comœdia Togata_ is so slightly mentioned by ancient writers, that we can hardly suppose that it comprehended a great class of national compositions. The _Tabernaria_ was a comedy of a lower order than the _Comœdia Togata_: It represented such manners as were likely to be met with among the dregs of the Plebeians; and was so called from Taberna, as its scene was usually laid in shops or taverns. These, I think, are the usual divisions of the regular Roman drama; but critics and commentators have sometimes applied the term _Togata_ to all plays, whether tragedies or comedies, in which Roman characters were represented, and _Palliata_ to every drama of Greek origin.
There was, however, a species of irregular dramas, for which the Romans were not indebted to the Greeks, and which was peculiar to themselves, called _Fabulæ Atellanæ_. These entertainments were so denominated from Atella, a considerable town of the Oscans, now St Arpino, lying about two miles south from Aversa, between Capua and Naples,—the place now named Atella being at a little distance.