Politicized Theatre and Political Theatrics at Pergamon and Rome

Abstract This chapter examines the impact of Pergamene theatricality on theatre at Rome. It begins at Pergamon, isolating the features of Attalid politicized theatricality, such as theatrical benefactions, the dynasty’s influence on their local association of Technitai, and their promotion of the local cult of Dionysus Kathegemon. Mithridates VI, who resided at Pergamon for three years in the 80s bce, mobilized this spectacle of Attalid Dionysism as an explicit part of his anti-Roman agenda, exaggerating politicized theatre into political theatrics. After Pompey defeated Mithridates in 63, he brought Mithridates’ elaborate political theatrics back with him to Rome and became the most direct link between Pergamene and Roman theatricalities. His third triumph brought the theatricality of Late Republican politics to new heights, while his theatre complex shows striking parallels with a Hellenistic basileia, particularly that of Pergamon. At this time, the connection between theatrical and political performances became inextricable in the Roman imagination and linked to an imagined version of Pergamon and the Hellenistic East.