‘She was mine to do as I liked with.’ (Ballio the pimp about Calidorus’s lady love, the slave-courtesan Phoenicium, page 230) Of the 20 or so plays by Plautus which have survived from antiquity, this is the longest. We have the precise date of production, 191 BC. As so often it is set in the […]
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Pseudolus by Plautus (191 BC)
Posted by Simon on March 30, 2022
https://astrofella.wordpress.com/2022/03/30/pseudolus-plautus/
Menaechmi (The Brothers Menaechmus) by Plautus (c.200 BC)
Prologue The prologue explains that there were once two little boys, identical twin sons of a merchant of Syracuse, named Menaechmus and Sosicles. One day the father took little Menaechmus on a business trip to Tarentum but while walking through a carnival together they got separated. A trader from Epidamnus found the little boy and […]
Posted by Simon on March 25, 2022
https://astrofella.wordpress.com/2022/03/25/menaechmi-the-brothers-menaechmus-plautus/
Captivi (The Prisoners) by Plautus (c.200 BC)
Prologue Hegio is a wealthy man living in the Greek city of Aetolia. Years ago his slave, Stalagmus, stole Hegio’s four-year-old son and ran off, never to be seen again. Hegio had one other son, Philopolemus. Now, years later, Philopolemus is grown up. But Hegio’s city is at war with the Greeks of Elis and […]
Posted by Simon on March 23, 2022
https://astrofella.wordpress.com/2022/03/23/captivi-the-prisoners-plautus/
Aulularia (The Pot of Gold) by Plautus (c.200 BC)
Aulularia or the Pot of Gold Aulularia literally means little pot but this play’s title is most often translated into English as ‘Pot of Gold’. It’s a classic ‘new comedy’ in that it is entirely domestic in focus and revolves around an obstructive father blocking a happy marriage of the younger generation although, as you’ll […]
Posted by Simon on March 21, 2022
https://astrofella.wordpress.com/2022/03/21/aulularia-the-pot-of-gold-plautus/
Amphitryo by Plautus (c.195 BC)
‘He’s a monster when he’s in love.’ (Mercury describing Jupiter, page 249) Plautus’s one venture into myth and legend, this play is a comic take on the birth of Heracles, supposedly fathered by the king of the gods, Jupiter, on a mortal woman Alcmena. The comedy derives from the fact that Jupiter impersonates Alcmena’s husband, […]
Posted by Simon on March 18, 2022
https://astrofella.wordpress.com/2022/03/18/amphitryo-plautus/
Trinummus (A Three-Dollar Day) by Plautus (c.200 BC)
‘Stick to the good old ways, my boy, and always do as I tell you.’ (Old Philto to his son Lysiteles, page 176) Introduction E.F. Watling’s brief one-page introduction points out the similarities and differences between this play and Mostellaria. Both involve a young adult son taking advantage of his father’s absence to squander the family […]
Posted by Simon on March 16, 2022
https://astrofella.wordpress.com/2022/03/16/trinummus-a-three-dollar-day-plautus/
Rudens (The Rope) by Plautus (c.210 BC)
Prologue Rudens is widely considered Plautus’s best play. The setting, a patch of rocky Greek coastline with a cottage and a shrine, make a change from the usual setting of a street scene in Athens. Plautus’s plays often have quite a bit of backstory i.e. a lot has happened before the action actually begins. In […]
Posted by Simon on March 14, 2022
https://astrofella.wordpress.com/2022/03/14/rudens-the-rope-plautus/
Mostellaria (The Ghost Story) by Plautus (c.210 BC)
The plot We are in Athens in front of the house of Theoproprides, a Greek merchant, and his neighbour Simo. Theoproprides has a son, Philolaches, who is in love with a courtesan Philematium (who has an elderly woman attendant, Scapha). Philolaches recently bought Philematium her freedom for 3,000 drachmas which he borrowed off a moneylender […]
Posted by Simon on March 11, 2022
https://astrofella.wordpress.com/2022/03/11/mostellaria-the-ghost-story-plautus/
Plautus (254 to 184 BC)
Biography Titus Maccius Plautus (254 to 184 BC), generally referred to as Plautus, was a Roman playwright of the Republican era. His comedies are the earliest Latin literary works to have survived in their entirety. It is said he moved to Rome and became a theatre assistant and actor who became successful with comic parts. […]
Posted by Simon on March 9, 2022
https://astrofella.wordpress.com/2022/03/09/plautus/
Books & Boots 