LAT 430/530
Introduction to Plautus
August 27, 2024

Roman Theater in Bosra, Syria (2nd century CE); Marble of Greek Theater Mask (2nd century BCE)

SYLLABUS

PLAUTUS

• Titus Maccius Plautus (“Dick‐The-Clownish-Flatfooter"), 254-184 BCE (cf. Atellan farce, Italian mime)? in operis artificium scaenicorum (Gellius 3.3.14)
  
  
• Roman translation project/appropriation of Greek literature: Livius Andronicus (240 BCE; 1st Punic War, 264‐241 BCE, 2nd Punic War, 218-201 BCE); the metapoetic tabellae in Ps.?
  
  ἄνδρα μοι ἔννεπε, μοῦσα, πολύτροπον . . . (Odyssey 1.1)
  virum mihi, Camena, insece versutum . . . (Livius Andronicus, Odyssia 1.1)
  
  Scene of Menander's Perikeiromene (Antioch, 3rd century CE)
  
  
• Greek New Comedy (domestic conflict, affirmation of family, citizenship & marriage): Menander (d. 292/1 BCE), e.g. Dyskolos; Dis Exapaton (1968 papyrus; cf. Plautus’ Bacchides)
  
  P.Freib. 12 & Pseudolus?
  
  ὦ Ζεῦ, τί σύννους κατὰ μόνας σαυτῷ λαλεῖς,
  δοκεῖς τε παρέχειν ἔμφασιν λυπουμένου;
  ἐμοὶ προσανάθου: λαβέ με σύμβουλον πόνων:
  μὴ καταφρονήσῃς οἰκέτου συμβουλίας.
  πολλάκις ὁ δοῦλος τοὺς τρόπους χρηστοὺς ἔχων                              5
  τῶν δεσποτῶν ἐγένετο σωφονέστερος.
  εἰ δ᾽ ἡ τύχη τὸ σῶμα κατεδουλῶσατο,
  ὅ γε νοῦς ὑπάρχει τοῖς τρόποις ἐλεύθερος.
  
  (“By Zeus, why are chattering to yourself, alone in your gloom? You seem like someone in grief. Confide in me, take me as an advisor in your troubles. Don’t despise the advice of a slave. If a slave’s got good character, he may prove wiser than his master. Even if chance has enslaved his body, his character still possesses a free person’s reasoning.”)
  
  
• Roman (New) Comedy: fabula palliata, “play in a (Greek style) pallium/palla” (ἱμάτιον); setting, stock characters, plots & scripts of Greek New Comedy Romanized (Latin, music, institutions, places, etc.); "Plautinopolis"
  
  
  L: Theater of Dionysus, Athens; R: Hypothetical Temporary Roman Theater Backdrop (Getty Museum)
  
  
• temporary theater in Rome (cf. Theater of Pompey, 55 BCE); institution of theater in Rome?
  
  
  Remains of Cybele's Temple on the Palatine Hill
  
  
• Pseudolus: Ludi Megalenses (temple dedication, April 191 BCE), didascalia
  
  M(arco) IVNIO M(arci) FIL(io) PR(aetore) VRB(ano) [sc. fabula] AC(ta) ME(galesiis)
  
  
• MSS tradition: Ambrosian palimpsest (A), Palatine recension (P)
  

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