Read Ebook: The Student's Companion to Latin Authors by Middleton George Mills Thomas Ross

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Ebook has 1782 lines and 113463 words, and 36 pages

'Quid? Sarsinatis ecquast, si Umbram non habes?'

The year of his birth can only be conjectured; he died B.C. 184.

From this notice, and from the passage of Gellius below, we learn that Plautus lost in foreign trade the money he had made as an assistant to scenic artists, and had to work for his living in a flour mill at Rome, during which time he wrote plays, and continued to do so afterwards.

Gell. iii. 3, 14, 'Saturionem et Addictum et tertiam quamdam, cuius nunc mihi nomen non subpetit, in pistrino eum scripsisse, Varro et plerique alii memoriae tradiderunt cum, pecunia omni, quam in operis artificum scaenicorum pepererat, in mercatibus perdita inops Romam redisset et ob quaerendum victum ad circumagendas molas, quae "trusatiles" appellantur, operam pistori locasset.'

Plautus is said to have written his own epitaph.

Gell. i. 24, 3, 'Epigramma Plauti, quod dubitassemus an Plauti foret, nisi a M. Varrone positum esset in libro de poetis primo:

"Postquam est mortem aptus Plautus, Comoedia luget, Scaena est deserta, ac dein Risus, Ludus Iocusque, et Numeri innumeri simul omnes conlacrimarunt."'

WORKS.

Plautus' plays were early criticized as to their genuineness. Gell. iii. 3, 1-3, after mentioning the canons of Aelius Stilo, Sedigitus, etc., says that Varro admitted twenty-one plays which were given by all the canons, and added some more. 'Nam praeter illas unam et viginti, quae Varronianae vocantur, quas idcirco a ceteris segregavit, quoniam dubiosae non erant, set consensu omnium Plauti esse censebantur, quasdam item alias probavit adductus filo atque facetia sermonis Plauto congruentis easque iam nominibus aliorum occupatas Plauto vindicavit.'

About one hundred and thirty plays were current under the name of Plautus; the theory of Varro that these were written by a certain Plautius is improbable.

Gell. iii. 3, 11, 'Feruntur sub Plauti nomine comoediae circiter centum atque triginta.'

The extant plays are as follows:

'Faciam ut conmixta sit haec tragicomoedia.'

'Huic nomen Graece Onagost fabulae; Demophilus scripsit, Maccius vortit barbare. Asinariam volt esse, si per vos licet.'

Authorities assign the play to about B.C. 194. The scene is Athens.

'Spectatores, ad pudicos mores facta haec fabulast.'

Some authorities think that the parasite is an addition to the original play, which may have belonged to the New Comedy. The scene is in Aetolia.

'Rogitationes plurumas propter vos populus scivit quas vos rogatas rumpitis,'

there is probably an allusion to the Lex Sempronia de pecunia credita, B.C. 193. The scene is Epidaurus.

'Clerumenoe vocatur haec comoedia Graece, Latine Sortientes. Deiphilus hanc Graece scripsit.'

The inference from l. 979, 'Nam ecastor nunc Bacchae nullae ludunt,' that the play was written after the S.C. de Bacchanalibus in B.C. 186, is improbable; the words rather show, as Mommsen believes, an anterior date, when it was not yet dangerous to speak of the Bacchanalia. Some authorities find support for the latter date in the words of the prologue, ll. 9-20 . The text of the play has suffered greatly. The scene is Athens.

'Bene valete, et vincite virtute vera, quod fecistis antidhac, ... ut vobis victi Poeni poenas sufferant.'

According to Ritschl, about 600 verses have been lost. The scene is Sicyon.

'Non res, sed actor mihi cor odio sauciat. Etiam Epidicum, quam ego fabulam aeque ac me ipsum amo, nullam aeque invitus specto, si agit Pellio.'

'Sed vestita, aurata, ornata ut lepide! ut concinne! ut nove!' etc.,

l. 1128,

The line, ?? ?? ???? ????????, ?????????? ????, which belongs to the same play is translated in ll. 816-7,

'quem di diligunt adulescens moritur.'

The date is pretty well fixed by l. 1073,

'Quod non triumpho: pervolgatumst, nil moror.'

Now, triumphs were not frequent till after the Second Punic War, and were especially frequent from B.C. 197 to 187. The play probably refers to the four triumphs of B.C. 189, and may have been brought out in that or the following year. The scene is Athens.

'Nam os columnatum poetae esse indaudivi barbaro, quoi bini custodes semper totis horis occubant,'

we have a reference to the imprisonment of Naevius, which shows that the play was written before his banishment, probably B.C. 206-5 . Line 1016, 'Cedo signum, si harum Baccharum es,' shows that the play is anterior to B.C. 186.

The original is the ?????? of some Greek poet. Cf. ll. 86-7,

'Alazon Graece huic nomen est comoediae: id nos Latine gloriosum dicimus.'

'Graece haec vocatur Emporos Philemonis; eadem Latine Mercator Macci Titi.'

Some light is thrown on the date by ll. 524-6.

This could not have been written before B.C. 196, the date of the settlement of Greece. The play shows traces of two distinct editions. The scene is Athens.

'Edepol hominem verberonem Pseudolum, ut docte dolum commentust';

l. 1244,

'Superavit dolum Troianum atque Ulixem Pseudolus.'

'Carchedonius vocatur haec comoedia Graece, Latine Patruus Pultiphagonidae.'

'Primumdum huic esse nomen urbi Diphilus Cyrenas voluit.'

'Vapulabis meo arbitratud et novorum aedilium.'

'Negat hercle ille ultimis accensus. Cedito: si non ubi sedeas locus est, est ubi ambules.'

'Tibicen vos interea hic delectaverit.'

'Ut ne peristromata quidem aeque picta sint Campanica, neque Alexandrina beluata tonsilia tappetia.'

There are, however, innumerable references to Roman public life and manners and customs, even in passages manifestly close to the original, although references to public events are rare.

'Dederamque suas provincias';

'Dum concenturio in corde sycophantias';

'De ducentis nummis primum intendam ballistam in senem: ea ballista si pervortam turrim et propugnacula, recta porta invadam extemplo in oppidum antiquom et vetus.'

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