When Did the Tibicen Play?: Meter and Musical Accompaniment in Roman Comedy

A thorough examination of the evidence for musical accompaniment in Roman comedy confirms, with slight modifications, the theory of Friedrich Ritschl and Theodor Bergk that the tibicen was silent during scenes written in iambic senarii but accompanied all other meters. Roman comedy was thus a more musical genre than has often been acknowledged, and we are justified in using alternation between iambic senarii and other meters to evaluate the musical patterns of the plays.