Romulus der Große

Romulus der Große. Eine ungeschichtliche historische Komödie (written 1948; first performed 1949; revised 1958)

Romulus the Great. An unhistorical historical comedy.

Dürrenmatt’s third play was written in 1948 and first performed in December 1949 at the Schauspielhaus in Zurich. He later revised the play, particularly the last act, and the second edition was published in 1958.

Written a few years after the end of World War Two, Romulus the Great is a great anti-war play. Halfway through, it shifts gear from farce to tragi-comedy (see reading list below, Donald G. Daviau, p. 109).

The play alludes to the collapse of the Third Reich – in Act One, the Roman general Mares even calls for ‘die totale Mobilmachung’ / ‘total mobilization’ (the title of a 1930 essay by the fascist author Ernst Jünger) . However, the play also reflects on empires in general and how they always rely on violence and oppression.

The central character, Romulus, the last Western Roman Emperor, accepts the fall of Rome because – in his view – it no longer has the right to continue. He criticises the hero worship of so-called ‘great’ men, most of whom are effectively mass murderers. Implicitly, the play poses the question: why do historians remember the warmongers and not the peacemakers?

The play departs from the historical record in order to serve its own dramatic purposes. The historical Romulus Augustus (465- after 511 AD) was an eleven year-old boy when Italy fell to the Germans in 476 AD. This was the year that the German leader Odoacer (433-493 AD) was crowned the King of Italy. In contrast, Dürrenmatt’s Romulus is a middle-aged man who has been Emperor for twenty years – his wife, Julia, and his daughter, Rea, are invented characters.

The play calls for justice and humanity rather than ambition and greed. The two political leaders in the play, Romulus the Roman Emperor and Odoaker the German commander, are both disgusted by their followers who demand blood and warfare. The two men would prefer to renounce killing and violence and breed chickens instead. Yet they know that because they abhor violence, their followers will try to kill them.

The East German intellectual Jürgen Kuczynski considered the fourth act of Romulus the Great ‘one of the most significant ever written for the German stage’ - quoted in J. H. Reid, ‘Dürrenmatt in the GDR: The Dramatist’s Reception up to 1980’, Modern Language Review 79:2 (1984), 356-71, here p. 365.

Action of the Play

The play is set in the year 476 AD, at the villa of the Emperor Romulus in Campania. It is the Ides of March.

In Act One the Roman prefect Spurius Titus Mamma arrives in Campania with the news that the Germans have won battle of Pavia. The Emperor Romulus refuses to see him, because he is busy having his breakfast. The finance minister has absconded and so Romulus has to sell off some of his art collection to Apollyon, the antique dealer. The Eastern Roman Emperor Zeno arrives, seeking sanctuary due to political unrest in Constantinople. The businessman Caesar Rupf appears and offers to bribe the Germans and save Rome, if he is allowed to marry Romulus’s daughter Rea.

In Act Two Rea is rehearsing a scene from Antigone when her fiancé Ämilian appears – he has spent the last three years being imprisoned and tortured by the Germans. Ämilian orders Rea to marry Caesar Rupf – she must sacrifice herself in order to save Rome. Rea is willing to do this, but Romulus appears and forbids the marriage.

In Act Three Romulus advises his daughter Rea to stay with Ämilian, the man she loves. His wife Julia appears and tells him that she is leaving him, and fleeing to Sicily. In a parody of Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar, Romulus discovers that his entourage want to kill him. But the assassination is interrupted because: ‘The Germans are coming!’

In Act Four there is even more bad news – the flight to Sicily has ended in a disaster. The two political opponents, Romulus and Odoaker, meet at last. They both dislike power and would much prefer to be chicken farmers instead. Odoaker asks Romulus to remain as Emperor. Romulus refuses and begs Odoaker to be a just ruler. Both men must reluctantly accept their destiny.

In Acts 3 and 4 of the play, the last Roman Emperor debunks the heroic myth of Roman grandeur. He recognises that the Empire has been built on oppression and violence. He therefore decides that the Empire must cease to exist. As he puts it:

'Man soll vor allem gegen sein Vaterland misstrauisch sein. Es wird niemand leichter ein Mörder als ein Vaterland.’

'Above all, be suspicious of your fatherland. Nobody is more inclined to become a murderer than a fatherland.'

- Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Romulus der Große (Act 3)

The anti-war message of the play recalls Ingeborg Bachmann’s famous poem Alle Tage, Every Day.

Recommended German Edition (with notes in English)

Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Romulus der Grosse, ed. by H. F. Garten, Methuen’s Twentieth Century Texts (London: Methuen, 1962)