The Forms of theatre one would find in Ancient Rome were many and varied. The origins on Roman Theatre can be traced back to Classical Athens, but the Romans offered more variety. The earliest examples are the ludi scaenici (dramatic performances), which were performances staged in honor of a particular deity, and evidence has been found of them as early as 364 BC.
However as the social and political situation in Rome changed so to did the people's taste for entertainment. These early religious themed plays gave way to comedy and bawdy farce in the fourth and third centuries BC. These types of drama developed in the south of Italy and were the influence of the later comedies of Plautus and Terence.
During the first century of the Roman Empire Seneca wrote his tragedies. However he was the only playwright to come out of the Roman Empire. In the second century of the Roman Empire Plautus was rediscovered, because of this his plays were preserved far better than those of Terence, which is why more of them are available today.
After this slight reemergence of theatrical interest, it again died out, and when Rome finally fell in 496 AD, there was no Roman Theatre, and many of the ideas left behind only came again in the emergence of the Commedia del'Arte theatre that emerged in the 1500's in Italy and went on to influence Moliere and Shakespeare.