Plautus

Rome's greatest comic playwright

c. 254 BC – 184 BC

Latin Republic

Titus Maccius Plautus was born around 254 BC in Sarsina, in Umbria, and died around 184 BC. Ancient tradition says he made money in the theatre, lost it in trade, and worked in a mill before returning to writing. Twenty-one of his comedies survive — more than for any other Roman dramatist.

Plautus adapted Greek New Comedy for Roman audiences, keeping the Greek settings and character types but adding slapstick, puns, song, and a manic energy that is entirely his own. His stock characters — the clever slave, the braggart soldier, the young lover, the stern father, the scheming courtesan — became the foundation of European comedy. Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors is based on Plautus's Menaechmi; A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum is pure Plautus.

His Latin is vivid, colloquial, and inventive. He plays with language the way a jazz musician plays with melody — riffing, improvising, and always swinging.

Works (20)

1
Amphitruo drama
Jupiter disguises himself as the general Amphitruo to seduce his wife Alcmena, while Mercury impersonates the slave Sosia. The result is Plautus' most...

6 acts
1,409 lines
2
Asinaria drama
A young man needs money to buy his girlfriend from a pimp. His father's slave hatches a scheme involving a team of donkeys. Low comedy with high energ...

6 acts
1,185 lines
3
Aulularia drama
A miser guards a pot of gold with paranoid devotion. His daughter needs a dowry. A young man wants to marry her. The pot goes missing. Plautus' most p...

6 acts
1,014 lines
4
Bacchides drama
A young man's friend seduces his father's mistress, then his own. Confusion escalates until everyone has been deceived by everyone else. One of Plautu...

5 acts
1,556 lines
5
Captivi drama
A father and son are both prisoners of war. The father arranges for his son's release by substituting another captive — who turns out to be the son of...

6 acts
1,247 lines
6
Casina drama
An old man's wife rigs the lottery to prevent him from sleeping with their slave girl. The household is in chaos. Plautus celebrates the power of wive...

6 acts
1,277 lines
7
Cistellaria drama
A fragmentary comedy involving a lost casket, a recognition scene, and young lovers. Enough survives to see the plot machinery working, but key scenes...

5 acts
831 lines
8
Curculio drama
A parasite named Curculio ("Weevil") schemes to rescue his patron's girlfriend from a pimp. Short, fast, and featuring a scene where the characters br...

5 acts
995 lines
9
Epidicus drama
A clever slave engineers his young master's escape from an unwanted engagement through a series of increasingly improbable deceptions. The plot is the...

5 acts
1,067 lines
10
Menaechmi drama
Identical twins separated at birth end up in the same city without knowing it. Every encounter produces confusion. Shakespeare adapted it as The Comed...

6 acts
1,440 lines
11
Mercator drama
A young man's father tries to buy the same girl his son wants. Father and son compete through intermediaries in a comedy that explores the absurdity o...

5 acts
1,413 lines
12
Miles Gloriosus drama
A braggart soldier, a cunning slave, and a stolen girl. The slave engineers an elaborate deception to rescue the girl from the soldier's house. The Mi...

5 acts
1,933 lines
13
Mostellaria drama
A haunted house — or so the slave Tranio claims, to keep his young master's father from discovering the parties inside. The ghost story is a lie. The...

5 acts
1,567 lines
14
Persa drama
A slave arranges the sale of a pimp's girl by impersonating a Persian nobleman. Set during the Saturnalia, when slaves and masters briefly change plac...

5 acts
1,265 lines
15
Poenulus drama
A Carthaginian father searches for his kidnapped daughters across the Mediterranean. Plautus includes passages in Punic — the only surviving examples...

6 acts
1,867 lines
16
Pseudolus drama
The cleverest slave in Plautus orchestrates the purchase of his young master's girlfriend from a pimp. Pseudolus is a playwright within the play — mak...

6 acts
1,774 lines
17
Rudens drama
A shipwreck, a recognition scene, a pimp, and a fisherman. A girl washed ashore turns out to be freeborn. Plautus combines romance and comedy in a set...

6 acts
1,850 lines
18
Stichus drama
A parasite reunites two brothers at a festival. The comedy is slight — Plautus admitted he adapted it hastily — but the Saturnalian atmosphere and mus...

5 acts
966 lines
19
Trinummus drama
A young man needs money and his friend's father has it. A buried treasure, a trickster slave, and the ethics of lending. Plautus examines friendship,...

6 acts
1,477 lines
20
Truculentus drama
A boorish soldier, a scheming courtesan, and a country girl. The title character is "the savage one" — but it is unclear whether the real savage is th...

6 acts
1,187 lines

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