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Plautus
Titus Maccius Plautus ( ; 254 – 184 BC) was a Roman playwright of the Old Latin period. His comedies are the earliest Latin literary works to have survived in their entirety. He wrote Palliata comoedia, the genre devised by Livius Andronicus, the innovator of Latin literature. The word Plautine () refers to both Plautus's own works and works similar to or influenced by his. Biography Not much is known about Titus Maccius Plautus's early life. It is believed that he was born in Sarsina, a small town in Emilia Romagna in northern Italy, around 254 BC.''The Concise Oxford Companion to Classical Literature'' (1996) Ed. M.C. Howatson and Ian Chilvers, Oxford University Press, Oxford Reference Online According to Morris Marples, Plautus worked as a stage-carpenter or scene-shifter in his early years. It is from this work, perhaps, that his love of the theater originated. His acting talent was eventually discovered; and he adopted the nomen "Maccius" (from Maccus, a clownis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amphitryon (Plautus Play)
''Amphitryon'' or ''Amphitruo'' is a Latin play for the early Roman theatre by playwright Titus Maccius Plautus. It is Plautus’s only play on a mythological subject. The play is mostly extant, but has a large missing section in its latter portion. The plot of the play involves Amphitryon’s jealous and confused reaction to Alcmena’s seduction by Jupiter, and ends with the birth of Hercules. There is a subplot in which Jupiter's son Mercury, keeping watch outside the house while his father is inside, has fun teasing first Amphitryon's servant Sosia, and then Amphitryon himself. The play is thought to be relatively late in Plautus's works, probably from the period 190–185 BC. One indication of this is the large amount of sung verse. Another is the description of Alcumena in line 703 as a bacchant, which may be connected with the Senate decree on Bacchanalia of 186 BC. The mention of another play in lines 91–2 may be a reference to Ennius's play ''Ambracia'' of 188. Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bacchides (play)
''Bacchides'' is a Latin (language), Latin comedy by the early Ancient Rome, Roman playwright Titus Maccius Plautus. The title has been translated as ''The Bacchises'', and the Plot (narrative), plot revolves around the misunderstandings surrounding two sisters, each called Bacchis, who work in a brothel. It includes Plautus' frequent theme of a clever servant outwitting his supposed superior to get money. The play is probably an adaptation of the play Δὶς Ἐξαπατῶν (''Dis Exapaton''), meaning ''Twice Deceiving'' or ''The Double Deceiver,'' by the Greek playwright Menander. The beginning of it is lost, but the outline of the missing scenes can be partly reconstructed from twenty surviving fragments. One feature of the play which has puzzled scholars is that while Menander's original play was called "The Twice Deceiving", there appear to be three deceptions in the ''Bacchides''. Various solutions to this have been suggested. Several scholars have proposed that the thir ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Asinaria
''Asinaria'' ("The Comedy of Asses") is a comic play written in Latin by the Roman playwright Titus Maccius Plautus. In the play an Athenian gentleman, Demaenetus, tells his slave Libanus that he knows his son Argyrippus is having an affair with the prostitute Philaenium next door, and he asks him to try to find some money to pay for the affair. When by chance a stranger comes bringing money owed for some donkeys sold by Saurea, the steward of Demaenetus's wife, Libanus's fellow-slave Leonida pretends to be Saurea, and the two slaves trick the stranger into giving them the money. Argyrippus is given the money on condition that his father is to be allowed to enjoy the first night with the prostitute. But a jealous rival, Diabolus, snitches on Demaenetus to his wife Artemona, who storms to the brothel and prevents her husband from enjoying the girl as well. The title is short for "the play about donkeys". Similar titles ending in the suffix ''-aria'' are found the plays and . In ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aulularia
''Aulularia'' is a Latin play by the early Roman playwright Titus Maccius Plautus. The title literally means ''The Little Pot'', but some translators provide ''The Pot of Gold'', and the plot revolves around a literal pot of gold which the miserly protagonist, Euclio, guards zealously. The play's ending does not survive, though there are indications of how the plot is resolved in later summaries and a few fragments of dialogue. One scholar, R. L. Hunter, writes of this play: "The ''Aulularia'' has always been one of the most popular and most studied of Plautus' plays, both because of its intrinsic interest and quality and also because of its later influence in the European dramatic tradition." Plot summary ''Lar Familiaris'', the household deity of Euclio, an old man with a marriageable daughter named Phaedria, begins the play with a prologue about how he allowed Euclio to discover a pot of gold buried in his house. Euclio is then shown almost maniacally guarding his gold fr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Captivi
''Captivi'' is a Latin play by the early Roman playwright Titus Maccius Plautus, written circa 200 BCE. The title has been translated as ''The Captives'' or ''The Prisoners'', and the plot focuses on slavery and prisoners of war. Although the play contains much broad humor, it is a relatively serious treatment of significant themes compared to most of Plautus’ other comedies. Plautus himself points out the difference in tone between this play and his other works in ''Captivi’s'' prologue. Plot summary Philocrates and his slave Tyndarus, from the Greek district of Elis, have been captured in war with another Greek region, Aetolia. They are now prisoners and slaves bought by Hegio, a well-to-do resident of Aetolia, who is planning to trade them for his son, Philopolemus, who has been captured in Elis. Pretending to be each other, the supposed slave Philocrates is sent to make the trade, while Tyndarus risks his life by remaining. A friend of Philocrates named Aristophonte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Casina (play)
''Casina'' is a Latin comedy or farce by the early Roman playwright Titus Maccius Plautus. Set in ancient Athens, the play describes how an Athenian gentleman and his son are both in love with the same slave-girl, Casina. The old man tries to conduct a secret affair with Casina by having her marry his farm-manager; but his plan is foiled by his wife, who dresses her son's armour-bearer up as the bride and sends him into the bridal chamber in place of Casina. The play is probably one of Plautus's later comedies, because of the amount of song which it contains.De Melo (2011), p. 7. There is also a mention of Bacchanalian revels, which are said no longer to take place; this may be a reference to a Roman senatorial decree of 187 BC forbidding such revels. If so, it would date the play to shortly before Plautus's death in 184 BC. According to the prologue (which appears to have been written for a revival some years after Plautus's death), the play is adapted from a comedy called ''K ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cistellaria
''Cistellaria'', translated as ''The Casket'', is a comedic Latin play of the late 3rd century BC by the early Roman playwright Titus Maccius Plautus. The story, set in the Greek town of Sicyon, concerns a girl called Selenium who was exposed as a baby and brought up by a courtesan called Melaenis. By a happy chance it is discovered that her birth mother, married to a senator Demipho, lives next door, enabling her to marry the young man Alcesimarchus who loves her. The play was adapted from a lost comedy by Menander called ''Synaristosai'' ("The Women Who Lunched Together"). The ''Cistellaria'' appears to be one of Plautus's earliest plays. In line 202, the hope is expressed that the war with Carthage will soon end with victory for the Romans (the Second Punic War in fact ended in 202 BC). The same passage mentions "your allies old and new", which may be a reference to the treaty of alliance made with the Aetolian League in 209. Characters *Selenium: a young courtesan, who t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Curculio (play)
''Curculio'', also called ''The Weevil'', is a Latin comedic play for the early Roman theatre by Titus Maccius Plautus. It is the shortest of Plautus's surviving plays. The date of the play is not known, but de Melo suggests it may come from the middle period of Plautus's career (c. 205–184 BC), from the moderate amount of musical passages it contains. Other indications of date are a possible reference in lines 509–511 to a law of 197 BC on money-lending, and from the mention of gold philippics (440 BC), a coin which may have become familiar in Rome after the war in Macedonia of 194 BC. Plot In ''Curculio'', Phaedromus is in love with Planesium, a slave girl belonging to the pimp Cappadox. Phaedromus sends Curculio (a stock parasite character) to Caria to borrow money from a friend. Unsuccessful, Curculio happens to run into Therapontigonus, a soldier who intends to purchase Planesium. After Curculio learns of his plans, he steals the soldier's ring and returns to Pha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roman Comedy
The architectural form of theatre in Rome has been linked to later, more well-known examples from the 1st century BC to the 3rd Century AD. The theatre of ancient Rome referred to a period of time in which theatrical practice and performance took place in Rome. The tradition has been linked back even further to the 4th century BC, following the state’s transition from monarchy to republic. Theatre during this era is generally separated into genres of tragedy and comedy, which are represented by a particular style of architecture and stage play, and conveyed to an audience purely as a form of entertainment and control. When it came to the audience, Romans favored entertainment and performance over tragedy and drama, displaying a more modern form of theatre that is still used in contemporary times. 'Spectacle' became an essential part of an everyday Romans expectations when it came to theatre. Some works by Plautus, Terence, and Seneca the Younger that survive to this day, highlig ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ancient Greek Comedy
Ancient Greek comedy () was one of the final three principal dramatic forms in the theatre of classical Greece; the others being tragedy and the satyr play. Greek comedy was distinguished from tragedy by its happy endings and use of comically exaggerated character archetypes, the latter feature being the origin of the modern concept of the comedy. Athenian comedy is conventionally divided into three periods; Old Comedy survives today largely in the form of the eleven extant plays of Aristophanes; Middle Comedy is largely lost and preserved only in relatively short fragments by authors such as Athenaeus of Naucratis; New Comedy is known primarily from the substantial papyrus fragments of Menander. A burlesque dramatic form that blended tragic and comic elements, known as phlyax play or hilarotragedy, developed in the Greek colonies of Magna Graecia by the late 4th century BC. The philosopher Aristotle wrote in his '' Poetics'' (c. 335 BC) that comedy is a representation of l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Old Latin
Old Latin, also known as Early, Archaic or Priscan Latin (Classical ), was the Latin language in the period roughly before 75 BC, i.e. before the age of Classical Latin. A member of the Italic languages, it descends from a common Proto-Italic language; Latino-Faliscan is likely a separate branch from Osco-Umbrian. All these languages may be relatively closely related to Venetic and possibly further to Celtic (see the Italo-Celtic hypothesis). The use of "old", "early" and "archaic" has been standard in publications of Old Latin writings since at least the 18th century. The definition is not arbitrary, but the terms refer to spelling conventions and word forms not generally found in works written under the Roman Empire. This article presents some of the major differences. The earliest known specimen of Latin seems to be on the Praeneste fibula. An analysis done in 2011 declared it to be genuine "beyond any reasonable doubt" and dating from the Orientalizing period, in the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fabula Palliata
''Fabula palliata'' is a genre of Theatre of ancient Rome, Roman drama that consists largely of Romanized versions of Theatre of ancient Greece, Greek plays.''OCD'', sv. palliata The name ''palliata'' comes from ''Pallium (Roman cloak), pallium'', the Latin word for a Greek-style cloak (''himation''). It is possible that the term ''fabula palliata'' indicates that the actors who performed wore such cloaks. Another possibility is that the ''fabula'' itself is metaphorically "cloaked" in a Greek style.''OCD'', sv palliata As in all Roman drama, the actors wore masks that easily identified which of the stock characters they represented. Style The only complete, extant ''fabulae palliatae'' are the Roman comedy, comedies of Terence and Plautus. Plautus introduced Roman manners and customs to the plays and filled the plays with boisterous humour and musical performances, while Terence kept his plays close to their Greek originals and sometimes combined two plays into one (''contaminati ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
