comic playwrights Menander, Diphilus, and Philemon. Than 100 lines survive from the Vidularia (The Traveling Bag).Īll the plays are based on Greek originals, especially those by the 3d-and 2d-century B.C. Twenty plays are extant more or less in their entirety: Amphitruo (Amphitryon), Asinaria (The Comedy of Asses), Aulularia (The Pot of Gold), Bacchides (The Two Bacchides), Captivi (The Captives), Casina (Casina), Cistellaria (The Casket), Curculio (Curculio), Epidicus (Epidicus), Menaechmi (The Twin Menaechmi), Mercator (The Merchant), Miles Gloriosus (The Braggart Warrior), Mostellaria (The Haunted House), Persa (The Girl from Persia), Poenulus (The Carthaginian), Pseudolus (Pseudolus), Rudens (The Rope), Stichus (Stichus), Trinummus (The Three Penny Day), and Truculentus (Truculentus). The total of Plautus's plays is probably close to 50. Most intriguing is precisely how Plautus, an Umbrian from rural Sarsina, managed to acquire both a knowledge of Greek and the superb control of Latin displayed in his dramas. His mastery of stagecraft and comic effect suggests long experience as an actor prior to writing plays. That Plautus earned money by theatrical work is generally accepted and may mean that he was a stagehand, carpenter, playwright, or actor. Scholars who accept this romantic career suggest that it may have been reported in Plautine prologues now lost. During this period he wrote three plays (not extant). He returned to Rome penniless and for a time supported himself by working as a laborer in a flour mill. Plautus earned money by working in the theater but promptly lost it in trade. From Aulus Gellius, a grammarian from the 2d century, comes the traditional and fascinating, if brief, account of Plautus's life in Rome. Festus, scholar of the 2d century A.D., gives Plautus's birthplace as the small town of Sarsina in Umbria, Italy. From Cicero the date of Plautus's birth can be placed about 254 B.C. Random remarks by later Roman writers and others furnish the questionable details.
#Plautus playwright full
Knowledge of the life of Plautus, whose full name was Titus Maccius Plautus, is scant. Unlike the early poets, Plautus confined himself to one area: translation and adaptation of Greek New Comedy (ca. During the 3d century B.C., Roman writers began to imitate the forms and contents of Greek literature.
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