Fabulae

Fabulae is the plural form of the Latin noun fabula, meaning a story, tale, fable, or play. In Latin grammar, fabula is a first-declension feminine noun; the nominative plural is fabulae, and the genitive singular is also fabulae. This overlap means the same form can signify either “stories” (nominative plural) or “of a story” (genitive singular) depending on context.

In classical Roman theater, the term fabula denotes the content or plot of a play. Two well-known categories are fabula palliata and fabula togata. Fabula palliata refers to comedies adapted from Greek subjects or settings, often performed in Greek dress, while fabula togata featured Roman subjects and was staged in Roman attire. These distinctions describe not only subject matter but also performance conventions within ancient drama.

In modern literary theory and narratology, fabula is used to describe the underlying sequence of events in a story—the chronological storytelling aspect—distinguished from the way those events are presented or narrated to the audience. In this sense, fabula can be thought of as the “storyline” independent of its particular arrangement on the page or screen.

As a word, fabulae also appears in contemporary usage as a title or heading in collections of fables, myths, or narrative fragments, particularly within Latin-language texts or scholarly works. The form remains primarily as a linguistic noun in Latin, but it frequently emerges in discussions of fable, narrative structure, and classical drama. See also fabula, fable, Roman comedy.