ATTA AND AFRANIUS.
Writers of togatae were Atta and Afranius.
Sueton. p. 15 R., ‘Togatas tabernarias in scaenam dataverunt praecipue duo, L. Afranius et T. Quintius.’
T. Quintius Atta died B.C. 77, according to Jerome yr. Abr. 1940, ‘T. Quintius Atta, scriptor togatarum, Romae moritur.’
Eleven titles and about twenty lines of fragments are extant. Horace refers to Atta in Ep. ii. 1, 79 sqq.,
‘Recte necne crocum floresque perambulet Attae
fabula si dubitem, clament periisse pudorem
cuncti paene patres, ea cum reprendere coner
quae gravis Aesopus, quae doctus Roscius egit.’
L. Afranius was probably born between B.C. 154 and 144. He was the chief writer of togatae (Quint. x. 1, 100, ‘Togatis excellit Afranius’), and also an orator.
Cic. Brut. 167, ‘L. Afranius poeta, homo perargutus, in fabulis quidem etiam ut scitis disertus.’
There are extant forty-two titles (with Latin names) and more than four hundred lines of fragments. The plays exhibit Roman surroundings, and describe low life, especially of the provincial towns. Cf. the title Brundusinae, also l. 136,
‘Ubi hice Moschis, quaeso, habet, meretrix Neapolitis?’