Plautus › Persa
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Plautus

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 places. The comedy takes its own festival logic seriously.

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Acts

  • 1
    Act 1

    The slave Toxilus needs money to free his girlfriend from a pimp. No master to swindle — he must find another target.

    231 lines
  • 2
    Act 2

    Toxilus recruits his friend Sagaristio to pose as a Persian slave-dealer. They will sell a free girl to the pimp as if she were a foreign slave.

    284 lines
  • 3
    Act 3

    The free girl (Sagaristio's friend's daughter) is dressed up and coached. The pimp inspects and buys her.

    144 lines
  • 4
    Act 4

    The girl's father appears and demands her back — she was never a slave. The pimp has been defrauded and has no legal recourse.

    457 lines
  • 5
    Act 5

    Toxilus celebrates his victory. The pimp is mocked, pelted with food, and forced to join a party in his own humiliation. The rare Plautine comedy where slaves outwit everyone without a master in sight.

    149 lines
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