The mode of speech normally used in epic as well as in tragedy had from the beginning a character artificial and remote from that of everyday life. As the second century advanced, the language of comedy – especially in Terence – moved away from that of tragedy and approached the common language. The language of tragedy and epic, on the other, displayed an increasing tendency to become more elaborate and artificial. Three sources have been suggested for the types of elaboration in early Republican drama: modes of speaking practised by Roman politicians, orators and officials, the Attic τραγικὴ λέξις and formulae of law and religion.

Methodological framework

It is very difficult indeed for a modern scholar to isolate features in the remains of Early Latin tragedy and epic, and label them as peculiarly tragic or epic. Roman critics (Hor. Ars 86ff., Gel. 2.23.21) often bewailed the lack of the sharp Attic distinctions of language between comedy and tragedy. Nevertheless some words, phrases, syntactical constructions and specific stylistic options can be shown, from their comparative frequencies in the tragic and comic scripts and the contexts as well as the metrical units in which they belong, to have possessed a more elevated tone than others.

In this study elevated language will refer to features that:

1. are often found in high literary genres (tragedy, epic) but are comparatively rare in comedy;

2. often belong to specialised registers found mainly in stylised ritual, legal and formal-official language;

3. when appearing in comedy, especially in Plautine drama, are used in contexts which may be characterised as solemn or mock-solemn (ritual settings, imprecations to Gods, formal supplications etc.), official or mock-official (parody of military, oratorical and public official vocabulary and manners of speech) or paratragic, often marked by highly stylised and rhetorically embellished language.