Captivi

Acts

• Prologue

  Prologue. Hegio has bought prisoners of war to exchange for his captured son. Plautus announces this will be an unusual comedy — no tricks, no love affairs.

  68 lines
• 1
  Act 1

  Hegio selects two captives. They are master and slave who have secretly swapped identities — the slave pretends to be the nobleman, and vice versa.

  141 lines
• 2
  Act 2

  Hegio sends the 'slave' (actually the nobleman Philocrates) to arrange the exchange, keeping the 'master' (actually the slave Tyndarus) as security.

  317 lines
• 3
  Act 3

  The deception is discovered. Hegio is furious. Tyndarus faces punishment in the quarries for his loyalty to his master.

  364 lines
• 4
  Act 4

  Tyndarus is condemned but defends himself with dignity: 'I did for my master what you would want your son's slave to do for him.'

  211 lines
• 5
  Act 5

  Philocrates returns with Hegio's son — and Tyndarus is revealed to be Hegio's other son, stolen as a child. The family is restored.

  146 lines