‘'THE STICHÏÏS OP PLAUTUS:
An Introduction and Elementary
Commentary"
A LISSERTATIOU
Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of
the Requirements for the Degree of
Master of Arts in the University of
London
by
JEANETTE DEIRDRE COOK
1
Bedford College, December, 1965
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ABSTRACT
This dissertation is composed of two parts»
The Introduction comprises sections on Comedy
in general, on Plautus's life, on the metres and
the manuscripts of his plays » With the exception
of the section on the structure of the Stichus,
it is a restatement of the situation as generally
accepted by scholars today. The question of the
structure of the Stichus is still a matter of
contention, and the leading views on this subject
have been discussed critically in this section»
The Commentary is intended for the level of
an undergraduate reader and comprises notes on
grammar, syntax and general interpretation» The
more detailed points concerning the metre are
also discussed in the notes. The text used is
Wc Mo Lindsay’s edition (Oxford Classical Text),
though in a few instances (notably at lines
63, 121, 365 , 529, 617) readings and emendations
other than those which appear in the Oxford Classical
Text have seemed preferable »
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I wish to thank my supervisor, Professor
R.B» Onians, and other members of the staff
at Bedford College, especially Mrs» G.
Wilkinson and Mr» J. Lowe, for their help
and guidance »
I should also like to express my gratitude
to the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission in
the United Kingdom, who have enabled me to
complete the necessary research and study for
this degree.
4
TABLE OE CONTENTS
Page
INTRODUCTION 5
Origins and Development of Comedy 6
in Italy and Greece
Life of Plautus 10
Structure of the Stichus 13
Metres of the Stichus 19
Manuscripts of Plautus 30
APPENDICES 166
Metrical Notes 167
The Stage 176
BIBLIOGRAPHY 179
ABBREVIATIONS 184
I N T R O D U C T I O N
6
ORIGINS AND DEVELOPMENT OE COMEDY
IN ITALY AND GREECE
Harvest is a time when people turn their
thoughts and offer thanks to the gods of fertility »
It is a religious time and a time for rejoicing.
In an agricultural community, it was the most
important time of the year, v/hen the storing of the
harvest marked the culmination of the year’s hard
labours. An air of abandon prevailed and celebrations
often took a licentious turn.^ in Italy it was
o
at this time that ’Eescennine ’ verses were sung,
a form of licentious banter, responsive and improvised,
and composed probably in the native Saturnian metre
(see p. ID).3 In 364 B C., according to Livy,
dancers were brought from Etruria to rid the city
of a plague. The satura, which later evolved into
a purely literary form known by us as ’satire’,
was probably originally a combination of Eescennine
verses and an accompaniment of music and dancing,
which, if we are to follow Livy’s account, had
been learned from Etruria.
In Campania, the native form of drama was the
Atellan farce, which must have been composed originally
in Saturnians or possibly trochaic septenarii, but
later in the regular metres of comedy.
1. Wo Beare, The Roman Stage, 2nd ed., London
Methuen, 1955 , p. 9°
2. The origin of the word was uncertain in ancient
as well as modern times. It may be from Eescennium, a
town on the confines of Etruria, or from fascinum
meaning ’phallus’. Both interpretations are possible
As has been seen, scenic performances in Italy were
influenced by Etruria at least at a later stage, and
the phallic element of Greek Old Comedy is well known
3. W. Beare, loc. cit.
4 o G.E. Duckworth, The Nature of Roman Comedy, New
Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1952.
7
Fragments of some later farces survive, but the
earlier ones were probably even cruder, and were
characterized by general tomfoolery and farcical
situations involving stock characters (the fool,
the glutton, the foolish old man, the sly hunchback).
The Atellan farces, too, contained a large element
of song and dance. They were influenced by the
Greek farces of Southern Italy, the ’Phlyakes’, much
akin to mime. Actors in Atellan farces, unlike the
ordinary run of actors,^ appear to have been quite
respectable. Livy states (Vll, ii) that they kept
p
their citizen rights and also served in the army.
The performances were always masked.^
The pre-literary Italian mimes were probably
native to Italy, but later were influenced to a
large extent by the Greek mimes. They were farces
in which mimetic action played a great part and they
seem to have contained a great deal of indecency
and buffoonery.
The word ’comedy ' originates from the Greek
a ’drunken r e v e l I n Greece, the comic chorus
seems to have originated from the songs sung in
1. Through the ages, there has always been a stigma
attached to the acting profession. But in Ancient Rome,
as today, famous actors, such as Roscius, of the time of
Cicero, seem to have been held in the utmost esteem.
2, Livy also mentions that actors (in all but Atellan
farces) could not serve in the army. Tenney! Prank,
(Life and Literature in the Roman Republic, Bather
Classical Lectures vol. 7, Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1930, p.9l), suggests that originally
actors were exempt from army service for practical purposes
because of the dearth of actors in the early days, but
that- later, as the profession fell more and more into
disrepute, it was considered morally appropriate to
refuse them entrance into the army.
3c See Appendix on the Stage, p.177.
4c A.V/. Pickard - Cambridge, Dithyramb, Tragedy and
Comedy 2nd ed., rev, by T.B.L. Webster, Oxford : Clarendon
]p]?eE3E3, . :L!3:2.
8
honour of the god Dionysus, the god of fertility, and
this would explain the obscenities apparent especially
in Old Comedy.
The introduction of actors originated probably
from Doric Comedy. The first known writer of comedies
was Epicharmus of Sicily, who composed short comedies
in simple dialogue metre in the Doric dialect. They
represented scenes from everyday life or were burlesques
of mythology, and had no chorus. It was the Dorians of
Sicily also who first gave rise to the form of drama
known as the mime, which was very popular in Italy.
Knowledge today of Old Comedy rests to a large
extent on the surviving plays of Aristophanes. His
plays are remarkable for their exuberant farce, their
brilliant political and personal invective, their
rich polymetry and their wild fantasy. In many of
his plays, the chorus was dressed as animals, after
which the play took its name (The Birds, The Erogs etc.)
The humour was often very coarse, unlike the refined
and sophisticated tones which the New Comedy was to
adopt o
Erom 404 B.C. on, after the Eall of Athens, Greek
Comedy became more universal in its appeal. Political
invective was outlawed, and in the days of the Middle
Comedy, about which little is known, the emphasis
switched to more everyday concerns, and mythological
travesties were also popular themes.Menander
(ca. 342 - 291 B.C.) is the poet through
whose works most is known about New Comedy. Only one
of his plays (the Dyskolos) survives in full, but,
apart from the great number of minor quotations which
have survived (many of them are m a x i m s )b, there are
also a few substantial fragments extant. It is the plays
of New Comedy which the Roman playwrights used, to a
greater or lesser extent, as models for their plays.
1. See notes, 1.139f»
9
The drama of Plautus's native Italy, at the
time when he began composing,^ had not undergone
the refinements and sophistications which influenced
Greek Comedy,in the fourth century, And partly
because of the influence which these native forms
of drama exercised on him, partly because of his
own nature, the spirit of Plautus's plays is often
far more akin to that of Aristophanes' than to that
of Menander's
The elements which typified Latin drama before
Plautus were above all the song and dance and
the buffoonery; and there is plenty of all this in
Plautus '3 plays ..^
lo Of the work of his literary predecessors,
Andronicus and Naevius, only fragments survive. Livius
Andronicus, a freedman, Greek by birth, translated
the 'Odyssey' from the Greek into Saturnians and
several tragedies and fewer comedies, imitating the
quantitative metres of his originals. Naevius composed
an epic, also in Saturnians, as well as adapting
Greek tragedies and comedies for Roman audiences.
His forte appears to have been comedy, into which he
introduced personal invective, for which he was
eventually imprisoned.
2c On Plautine cantica, see p .27 . There is little
horseplay in the Stichus until the final act, but a
great deal of fooling, largely at the expense of
the parasite.
10
LIEE OE PLAUTUS
Cicero tells us (Pr. XV, 60) that Plautus
died in 184 B.C. and was an old ipan when the
Pseudolus was produced in 191»^ It is generally
accepted, then, that he was born in or around 254 B.C.
His birthplace was Sarsina in Umbria (Suetonius,
de Vir. Illustr. 24: Jerome, an. Abr. 1817), and he
was of humble origin; otherwise he would never have
been associated with the acting profession (see
p. 7 ). Before he came to Rome, he possibly acted
in Atellan farces, and maybe even mimes, somewhere
in Central or Southern Italy: for Maccus was the
name of the clown in the Atellan farce (see p. 7 ),
and Plautus is possibly an urbanized form of plotus,
which Eestus says meant planis pedibus, ’flat-footed’.
This recalls the word planipes, the usual terminology
for an actor in a mime. It is uncertain whether,
in fact, he could have acted both in Atellan farce
and in mime; for it was highly respectable to be
associated with the Atellan farce, and quite degrading
to be associated with any other form of acting,
2
especially the mime. However, as Beare points out,
in Plautus's time, the Second Punic War was in
progress, and as men who acted in the Atellan farces
were not exempt from military service (all other
actors were)5, it is likely that their places were
taken by actors who presumably performed in mimes
1. The didascalia of the Pseud., makes it possible
to date the play.
2. Wo Beare, 'Titus Maccus Plautus,' OR, 1939, Llll,
P 0116 0
3 o Eor possible reasons for such exemption, see
p. 7 , footnote 2.
11
too. In any case, it is almost certain that
Plautus in his youth was an actor of some description;
for in Aul.Gello III 3, 14 (where he is quoting
from Varro, who lived in the first century B.C.),
we read pecunia omni quam in operis artificum
scaenicorum pepererat in mercatibus perdita....
Varro goes on to say that after he had made his
unsuccessful venture in trade, Plautus returned to
Italy and went to Rome, where he worked in a mill.
Here he wrote his first three plays (Saturio,
Addictus, and one other). The first datable play
of Plautus is the Miles Gloriosus, which was performed
no earlier than 206 B.C. (There is a reference in it
to the imprisonment of the poet Naevius, which took
place in that year.) This means that he was writing
while the Second Punic War was still in progress
(2 IS-202 B.C.) so^it is unlikely that he fought
in that war at all, as he would hardly have been
discharged during its course. It is also unlikely
that he fought in the Gallic War which broke out in
225 and continued until 222 or 221 B.C.; for he
would have had to have been living in or near his
birthplace till the year when the war broke out. In
this case, the only conceivable time for him to have
made his fortune as an actor,^ bought himself into
trade, returned to Rome, and worked a considerable
time in a mill, would have been between the end of
the Gallic War and 2f%, when the Second Punic War
1. C.H. Buck, on whose work A Chronology of the Plays
of Plautus, (Baltimore; printed privately, 1940},'most
of the present chapter is based, raises the question
whether Plautus, as an actor in Atellan farces, could
have raised enough money to buy himself into trade.
But farceurs, he says, seem not to have depended upon
infrequent state grants, but to have operated over a
wide field in Central and Southern Italy, probably on
the basis of privately managed, profitmaking enterprise
A c ( e t ) G k + a l > l ç p x D i n t " — c o u l d K c ^ v / e b e e y ^ a n . y n u r r \ k e r
o( rexxsc^ns )'Tv "VKe -fo r m S:pec\al cAvq ^elriscxViovns voKccK! ;
u jo u ld . KoiMe. ooe(|v\^Ve-c^ 4rûnr\ vv-nl ii“cxr y serv/sce.
12
broke out - hardly enough time. We should assume,
then, that Plautus’s knowledge of the Greek language
was acquired when he was acting in the South of
Italy, home of the Atellan farce and not while
serving in the army. After winning recognition as
a playwright, Plautus was able to leave his job in
the mill, and with increasing skill,^ pursued his
profession at Rome until his death in 184 B.C.
lo His plot-construetion became increasingly
dexterous, his intrigues more subtle: also there is
a far greater percentage of cantica in his later
plays (see p.22 ). The following is a table of
the chronology of Plautus’s plays, proposed by
Buck;
207 Asinaria 193^ Mostellaria 187 Trinummus
206 Mercator 191 Poenulus 186 Truculentus
205 Miles Gloriosus 191 Pseudolus 186 Amphitryo
202 Cistellaria 190 Epidicus 186 Menaechmi
200 Stichus 189 Bacchides 186 Persa
194^ Aulularia 189 Rudens 184 Casina
193^ Curculio 188 Captivi
* ^ or after
13
STRUCTURE OE THE STICHUS
Plautus wrote purely and simply for the stage.
The purpose of his plays was to provide entertainment
for the holidaying crowds, and no doubt the Stichus
succeeded in this respect, though even from a point
of view of simple fun, it was probably not considered
to be ’on a par’ with such a play as the Mostellaria,
for instance, with all its fast-moving farce.
As a piece of literature, the play is very
third-rate and fails to impress the modern reader.
The exposition promises quite an elaborate plot,
which never eventuates. The two sisters, who open
the play, disappear completely after the first two
acts, the old man does not pursue the question of
taking a second wife (1.108) and is reconciled
very quickly with his sons-in-law (408ff., 529fo)=
The reason is very probably that Plautus has
either based his play on more than one Greek original
and combined the plays very clumsily, or (and this
seems more likely) provided an ending for a Greek
play which he has changed and modified to suit
the requirements of a Roman production.
Eriedrich Leo^ considered that the Stichus
incorporated no fewer than three Greek originals. As
has been mentioned, the promises of the exposition
are either never fulfilled or are passed over
very rapidly. This first portion (the exposition) Leo
considers is from Menander’s Eirst Adelphoi (see
p. 35 ). The parasite, however, he does not
lo Eo Leo, ’Uber den Stichus des Plautus,’ NGG.,
I). 375 i : f .
14
consider to have been part of the Eirst A d e l p h o i , ^
but to have been introduced into the first part of the
play by Plautus from another Greek play which was in all
likelihood not written by Menander, firstly, the
motivation for the first introduction of the parasite
is insufficient - Pinacium is already watching at the
harbour;and also Gelasimus himself later says that he has
not been allowed near the house of Epigiomus for three
years (1.214), and it is unlikely that he would be
summoned now. Leo goes on to suggest, however, that if
Ic Of the eleven fragments quoted by Kook (Comicorum
Atticorum fragmenta, 3 vols., Leipzig: leubneF^ 1888)
as belonging to Menander’s Adelphoi, nine can be
identified v/ith quotations from Terence’s Adelphi.
Concerning fragment 8(K), see below, p.18 ; and
ll(K)^according to Kauer, may well have originally been
part of the parasite’s monologue (T.B.L. Webster,
Studies in Menander, Manchester:. Manchester University
Press, 1953, p.140).^13(K), which is normally
attributed to the , is very probably to
be identified with Stich. 649f°, (see below, p.l6 ),
and Stobaeus quotes it as being from Menander’s
Adelphoi . five further relevant fragments are from
a play of Menander’s called the Philadelphoi, which,
according to Hermann, may v/ell be one and the same as
the Eirst Adelphoi. They are:
503(k TT~
6a:xLYi5cxe ig ôi,dXi,0oi, Xç;f;.pwvlo i,
n^pcrai ô'’f)(ov'reç jxuioffdpag eau^EcJav.
which Webster (loc. cit.) compares with Stich. 374f :
!5()4.(K ) :
0Ô pd5 Lov
uyo ev ixpw peTacrrfjaa l vpUvco.
506-7(K): wg r|6^ TO et p.e0^wv -cig gv.
xà Cqv, o 6 y sgutgj gffv lixfvov.
which according to Webster might be 'the answer of one of
the wives to her father (cf Stich. 104ffo):
505(K):
vfj Tov A fa TÔv p^Yiatov .
which also according to Webster probably belongs to one
of the wives;
5;08(K ) :
e iXc^upv tcoo craovCw TCGTcXpYk^^^o C?
which is the most uncertain; Webster considers it may be
part of Gelasimus’s final speech, Stich.638f.
15
in fact this is not the case, and if Gelasimus
is connected with the bringing of the news, then
the whole episode of the news belongs, with Pinacium
and Gelasimus, to a different play. Plautus probably
introduced Gelasimus into those first scenes to
provide more comic situations (e.g. Gelasimus’s
auction of his jokes, 1.195 ff», Pinacium’s fooling
of the parasite, 1.316 ff., the former having a
particularly Roman flavour).
Secondly, Leo believed that the second part of
the play, which has largely to do with the parasite
(stich., Acts 3 and 4), was not based on a
Menandrian original, because, in the extant fragments
of Menander’s plays, the parasite appears rarely,
and usually in connection with a soldier.
Act 111, scene i is of vital importance when
considering the origins of the final act of the
Stichus. Leo was the first to note two irregularities
Firstly, the repetition of age abduce hasce intro,
in 11..418, 435: secondly, the incongruity of
Epignomus’s remaining on stage during Stichus’s
monologue 1.436 ff. These he takes as signs of
Plautine interference. He claims that originally
Epignomus was in all likelihood held back not by
Stichus, but at 1.465 by Gelasimus (whose speech,
1.459 ffo, may well have been a first entrance speech,
thus lending support to his theory that the parasite
had no part in the original play which constituted
the first part of the Stichus, but made his first
entrance here): that 11.419"53 have been inserted by
Plautus to prepare for the final act, the idea for
which came from yet another Greek play.
Eduard Praenkel^ agrees entirely on this last act
1. But cf. the parasite in the Dyskolos ,
2. E. Praenkel, Plautinisches im Plautus, Berlin:
Weidmann, 1922, p .278 ff.
16
ToB.L. Webster, however,^ has pointed out some
reasons why Act V should not be dismissed as not
belonging to the First Adelphoi.
Firstly, concerning Act 111, sc.i, he has
noted that the second abduce hasce (1.435) comes
not after Stichus’s monologue but before, and that if
Plautus had in fact inserted 11.419-53, then he
would surely have put the second abduce hasce at the
/
end of the monologue. On the other hand he admits that
the monologue itself may well be a Plautine addition^
and remarks upon the difficulty of Epignomus’s
remaining on stage (which he must have done, not
leaving it until 1.496, in order to make his
comments in 1.523 ffc on his first reappearance from
indoors, the only natural point at which to do so).
Secondly, if Leo is correct in assuming a third
(and Fraenkel a second) play as the original of Act V,
Webs ter asks why Stephanium should appear from the
wrong house at 1.674 unless it is that earlier
in the original play she had entered it with Pamphila
(cf. 1.536). The reader’s attention is also drawn to
p
a fragment from the First Adelphoi, 13 (K):
w 9 fXf] 6 ypc^voo tioXXoü lômv
dc>aidCo[ia li.* T o o rl y&p o6 Ttacrav no iw
orfiv ôè toÔ|j.6v èafôco y^pfov
TO Y&p Tp^9ov pe TouT^ xpfvw 9edv*
1. ■ Prof. Webster feels there is no need to assume
more than one Greek original. He goes further and
attempts to reconstruct the original, scene for scene
(op.cit., p.l43ffo)c But the discovery of the Dyskolos
has proved how treacherous such an endeavour can be.
2. See p. 14 footnote.
17
Kauer has made the suggestion that this may well he
the origin of Sangarinus’s entrance speech lo649fo,
because the language is very probably that of a
slave and there is in fact some similarity to
Sangarinus’s words, Salvete, Athenae, quae nutrices
Graeciae. etc.
To return to the first four acts, which, as
mentioned, Leo considers comprise two originals ;
Fraenkel, on the other hand, sees no reason to
assume anything but one Menandrian original. But he
does point out that Plautus must not simply have
abbreviated and lengthened his original, but made
changes and modifications to cater for the tastes of
his audience. For instance, the quarrel between
Antipho and his sons-in-law mentioned in the
exposition is in fact almost forgotten, but Fraenkel
cannot believe that later references to it and to
the reasons for it (11.134, 408f., 628, and, quoted
Ibjr Ijeo ]i:Lm(3e]_f, ].l. , 52<3 ) Eire
chance references and ’nur wie angeweht’ (Leo,
opo cit., pc386)o In Stichus Acts 111 and IV we
have the basic form of the original play which was
also the original-of Acts 1 and 11. And it certainly
seems that Leo is stretching the point and that in fact
Fraenkel here has the correct approach. It is
difficult to believe that a playwright like Plautus,
who was capable of providing his Roman audiences with
hours of fun, was only a slavish imitator of earlier
Greek plays. It is well known that the type of
sophisticated comedy which pleased an average Greek
audience would fail to impress Plautus’s: and he was
able to adapt to suit the tastes of his public. So
that where the Greek First Adelphoi most probably went
on to unravel step by step the argument between father
and sons-in-law, Plautus, realising that this would
bore his audience, instead substituted scenes of sheer
18
fun, and no doubt the parasite (see notes, 1.280)
played a larger part in the Latin than in the
Greek version.
Concerning the last act, 1 am inclined to believe
thatjin the original, the actual action on stage
terminated soon after the equivalent of Stich. 682.
1 agree with Praenkel that it would be most unusual
for a Menandrian comedy to have ended witha
compMely disconnected final act - in this case, a
banquet. 1 do find it credible, however, that both
masters and slaves went off to their respective feasts^
and/suggest that fragment 8(K) could be a report
on such off-stage activities :
inxiS Tir umoxeLv dve^oa >cal ôwôexa
%od8oo.%g eioc x a ' v é a e l a e cpiXoTiiioUaevog.
(Webster thinks this could be part of an accountof
the past life of the brothers.)
It is, of course, impossible to say that anything
for certain was the case. The main point is to
realise, as Praenkel points out, (op. cit., p.279),
that Plautus’s original has undergone not only
(recasting (Umgestaltung)) and extension (Erweiterung)
but also ^urtailment (Verstummelung)^ ,
» -"Fre^^çÆq; .--'U 7.x:J j(,;)';p3'x.pro
T K e - LA^Kole ues>t i o r\ o Ç The. n c if u re oA LoLf (K\
v e rs e . \s v e r y m ucim cA isp o V e xA . IV S ^ iU n o i’
^ e n e r c L lly o ^ r e ,€ - d ^-Çor ir\s V c \n c e , L ^ 4 ir \ hcxcl
a r \ y w o r c l cxccervV ^ or* \n 4V\caV v e r s e \ c f u S
\ s4-e_cL (^See L.P. V \!\ lk ir \ S o n ^ G ^W e n . Lg4tr\ A rfv s ^ + ry ^
\\|V a + -(ollosAJS [r\ th is c W a p 4 e r r ^ p r e - s e n f s rr>ec<2-\y
o n e poxn't’ eV vte vxj ^ <br\ ojVwc-W AO. CY\. l—ir^cAscxy V\cks
t>cxs«^dl V is Q.rvo.lysvS "Pl-o^u t ir \^ tn h (S
E o .r(y L c x f\r\ V e .< ^ e ,tU e m o s V C o rrv p re V e r^S tv e c\cc.<Dun4
av(XJ (xVle..
19
fΔRES OP THE STICHUS
I Latin had a very strong word-accent ( x ). The
earliest (native) Latin verse, the Saturnian,
was probably accentual. In adapting their
language to the metres of (quantitative) Greek
verse, the earliest poets met with difficulties.
The verse ictus ( x ) could not be ignored, but
neither could the natural word - accent be sacrificed
entirely to it. Plautus strove after as great a
harmony as possible between the two forces, but
never to the detriment of his versification.
How are we to assume such verse was spoken?
The latest editors of the Miles Gloriosus suggest
that the modern reader ’give a normal stress when
the ictus coincides with the normal accent of the
word, phrase, or sentence - as is generally the
case in Plautus. When the ictus falls on a
different syllable from that which receives the
word-accent, the reader should perhaps stress
the ictus slightly and at the same time attempt
to preserve both the word-accent and the syllabic
quantities.’
11^ The plays of Plautus reflect the spoken language of
the educated classes of the people of his day. It
is not ’Low Latin’.
Prosody.
lo Shortening of long syllables.
a) The pxixiopleof Brevis B r e v i a n s a phonetic y,
arjj=K '
/not a metrical law. If a long syllable (long by
either position or by nature) is preceded by a
1,0 Sections 11 and 111 are based on W.M. Lindsay,
Early Latin Verse, Oxford : Clarendon Press, 1922,
pp. 8lff., 267ffV, 281ff,
short, accented syllable, that long syllable is 20
’thrown into the shade’, and can become a short
syllable =.
0ogo Stich, 695 (ïroch.) :
IV/ -, mmm
tamen bibimus nos
This would be the normal pronunciation in everyday
speech, because the word-accent falls on the
first syllable. The notion that pronunciations,
unheard of in normal speech, were allowed in
verse, is of itself absurd. For instance, we
cannot assume that at Stich. 696, the word
anilca suddenly and here alone took on the
pronunciation arnica. The verse is corrupt.
princ-ipie.
The'law of Brevis Brevians can apply only
if the long syllable in question is preceded by a
short. It is not applied in verse, if the long
syllable bears the ictus.
b) In the spoken language, in a group of words,
one syllable takes the stress, thereby ’throwing
into the shade’ neighbouring syllables. The most
commonly quoted example is the phrase voluptas mea.
The two words, being so closely connected, are
pronounced as one, and, as the penultimate is not
long, the word-accent will fall on the
antepenultimateo The syllable preceding, normally
long, will become short.
2o Noteworthy features.
a) The third person singular of verbs which in
Classical Latin have second person singular Present
Indicative in -as, -e_s, -is, had the endings -at,
-e"t, -it, in Early Latin (also -ID in the third
singular perf. indie., perf, subj. etc.) and were
shortened only when the law of Brevis Brevians was
applicable or where in a word-group, the stress
falling on a neighbouring syllable shortened them.
b ) Pinal -er and -or of substantives (also -or
of the first person sing. passive, e.g. vocor) were
21
still long in Plautus’s day, and were only
shortened where the law of^Brevis Brevians (etc.)
was applicable.
c) Adverbs with iambic form and originally ending in
-e' had become pyrrhic by Plautus's time. The forms
bene, mal'e, are not found anywhere in his works.
d) The final of a word was pronounced faintly, and
although never elided, yet often did not count as a
consonant e.g. Stich. 622 (Troch. Sept.-end): eamus tu
3. Synizesiso
a) Vowel groups which can undergo synizesis are : eo,
ea, ei9 ie, ia, io, ui, etc. Sometimes, it is not
possible to say whether a vowel undergoes Brevis
__ V/LV .
Brevians or synizesis (e.g. 1.56, suam sententiam).
But at 1.622, for instance, the scansion must be
eamus^tu, such a scansion as eamus being impossible
(see 11 1 a).
b) With the possessive pronouns, such forms as
mei, tuo, etc., were monosyllabic if unemphatic,
otherwise disyllabic.
4o Hiatus.
Hiatus was permitted :
a) after long monosyllabic words ending in a vowel
or The long monosyllabic word was shortened,
e.g. di//ament (Stich. 685);
b) at the diaeresis (e.g. Stich. 730);
c) at the change of speaker (e.g. Stich. 376);
d) at a pause in the sense (e.g. Stich. 465) hiatus
in pausa;
e) when an abnormal effect was desired (Lindsay
suggests the reason for the succession of hiatuses
S/t Stich.11.459-61 is that Gelasimus is reading aloud
from his book of jokes. He pauses, finding difficulty
in reading some of the words);
1. See 11 2 do
22
f) with interjections;
g) often with unemphatic monosyllables (e.g. Stich .
159), always with emphatic monosyllables (Stich.494);
h) with emphatic iambic words (cf. notes, Stich.
153).
Ill All Latin comedies consisted of two parts:
diverbium (dialogue) and canticum (intoned
recitative). The plays of Plautus are much richer
in cantica than those of Terence. Plautus himself
learned to exploit the cantica more and more as
his career progressed. The Stichus, one of his
earlier plays, despite its festive spirit,
especially at the end, almost entirely lacks lyric
metres; whereas the Persa, written some fourteen
years later, has a similar drinking scene,
composed in very elaborate polymetry (Pers.753 ff.-).^
Spoken dialogue was composed in iambic senarii.
The recitative metres were iambic and trochaic
septenarii and octonarii, and the main lyric metres
were based on the anapaestic, ere tic or bacchiac
foot. The only lyric passages in the Stichus are
the opening 17 lines, and 11.18-47 (anapaestics)
and 309-329 (anapaestics). This constitutes barely
9/^ of the whole play. 35^ is dialogue and the
remaining 56ÿ^ recitative.
Metres.
A. Trochaic.
The trochaic metre is one of excitement. It is very
common in the plays of Plautus. Over half the Stichus
is composed in trochaic septenarii (378’lines).
2
Lindsay estimated that Plautus neglects diaeresis
in this metre once in every ten or twelve lines,
Ic V/.Ba Sedgwick, ’Origin and Development of Roman
Comic Metres,’ Class, et Med., 1949,X,171-181.
2. E.L.V., p.2831
23
and that hiatus occurs at the diaeresis once in
every twenty lines. In the. Stichus, the only instances
where the diaeresis is neglected altogether
are: 11» 76, 136, 550, 589, 605, 616 and 621. There
are a further 22 instances where there is elision
at the diaeresis. This means that diaeresis is neglected
once in every twelve or thirteen lines. In the
Stichus, hiatus occurs at the diaeresis at 11 « 137, 376,
710 and 730, that is, once in a little less than
every hundred lines, a substantial difference from
the average. m tKe fet sv^ ftdt
1. The dactylic foot is very common^ being probably
far more popular in Plautus than in Greek New Comedy.
A dactylic foot beginning with a trochaic word is
normally confined to the first foot, and the two words
are usually closely connected (e.g. S_tich. 86).
2.a) A tribrach word quite often constitutes an
entire foot in trochaic verse, never in iambic
(e.g. Stich. 72 scelere, 99 facere etc.).
b ) It is very common for a pyrrhic word to form
the beginning of a tribrach foot in Plautus's trochaic
verse (e.g. Stich. 143 bene valete) .
c) It is very uncommon for a pyrrhic word-ending
to form the beginning of a tribrach (or anapaestic)
foot. The only two exceptions which Lindsay citesl
are :
Bacc o 615 (troche oct.): //inamabilis inlepidus vivo,
and Stich. 736 (troch. sept.): mea suavis amabilis
amoena//.
3=a) An anapaestic foot very rarely begins with a
final short syllable except when the word to which
the final short syllable belongs is closely connected
lo EoLoVn, p.98.
24
with the following word. Departures from this
usage in the following instances should be regarded
merely as licences in cantica:^ Stich.85
perplexabiliter earum; 736 suavis amabilis.
b) An anapaestic foot rarely begins with a .
pyrrhic word-ending (see above, 2c ).
4 o The final syllable of a pyrrhic word very
rarely begins a foot in a trochaic line. At Stich.
696; Lindsay explains^ that ut^rutrubi should
perhaps be treated as a word-group.
5. The proceleusmatic foot, so common in iambic
verse, occurs hardly ever in the 'running' metre.
It is often used to accelerate the movement of the
senarius.
6. If an iambus word concludes a line, the sixth
foot is never trochaic, unless a monosyllable or
the phrase malam crucem precedes that final iambic word.
Bo Iambic.
I . Neither a tribrach word nor a proceleusmatic
word constitutes an entire foot of an iambic verse.
2 0 When a tribrach foot occurs, it very rarely
begins with a pyrrhic word (but of. Stich. 255
imm^/d^t a vobis), but sometimes it can begin with a
pyrrhic word-ending (e.g. Stich.209 maxuma misero).
3 = In the first foot of an iambic line, a dactylic
foot may begin with a trochaic word, but that
trochaic word is generally closely connected with
the following word (e.g. Stich. 208a, 252). A trochaic
word-ending can never begin any foot in an iambic line.
1. ibid,
2o E.L.V., p.99
25
4 .a) An anapaestic foot beginning with a final short
syllable is very rare (not occurring in the Stichus),
and is possible only when the word to which'that final
short syllable belongs is connected closely with the
following word.
b) An anapaestic foot beginning with a final
pyrrhic is never found in dialogue. At Sticho
769, however, where it is part of a canticum, we find
Qui lïï/iÿcus.
5 .a) In a proceleusmatic foot, the ictus always
falls on the accented syllable. The proceleusmatic
in iambic metre is a favourite with Plautus. See A5b)
Proceleusmatic feet beginning with either a
pyrrhic word-ending or a final short syllable or with
a tribrach word occur very rarely, if ever. Never in
the Stichus.
6.a) Spondees are admitted into all feet in the
senarius, except the last, and usually the verse ictus
znd word-accent coincide if a spondaic word or
word-ending falls in any of the first four feet.
(Exceptions in the Stichus: 188 ei verbo vicarium;
447 ad cenam condicere; 457 meis dictis deleniam;
661 Dionysum mihique et tibi.^ All occur in the
fourth footo)
b) If an iambic word ends a senarius, the fifth
foot cannot be iambic^ unless the syllable immediately
preceding the sixth foot is a monosyllable (e.g. Stich.
411) or unless a quadrisyllable word with the
first three syllables short precedes or unless the
phrase in malam crucem ends the line.
c) Caesura in the senarius is very strictly observed
(in the Stichus only 11.229, and 300^ which is in a
canticum, lack caesura).
1. Lindsay, E.L.V., p.16.
26
7 .a) The iambic septenarius, a lively metre
(cf. Stich. 771) and perhaps the smoothest running
of all Plautine metres, demands an iambic fourth
foot, followed by diaeresis. The one exception is
Stich. 681, where the fourth foot is a tribrach. The
diaeresis is strictly observed, the sure examples
of its absence being less than one in tv/enty lines,
and in many of these, the absence is hardly perceptible.
(The fourteen lines of iam.sept. in the Stichus all
have diaeresis.)
b) The seventh foot of a septenarius need not be
iambic, InHhe Kcx.ve raw-ob\e -fcof.
8,a) In the case of the iambic octonarius, a metre
rarely employed by Plautus in long passages, and
introduced usually into a canticum to break the monotony
the diaeresis is not so strictly observed. (In the
thirty iambic octonarii in the Stichus, no less
than seven are without diaeresis (11.281, 304, 306,
702, 704, 703 and 67).
b) The fourth foot was not necessarily iambic,
unless there was hiatus or syllaba anceps at the
diaeresis.
c) The eighth foot is iambic. (The iambic character
of the septenarius was established by the fourth foot,
which was invariably iambic - see above, 7a. - not
by the seventh, which could be anything, whereas
in the octonarius)^%-tAiad to be iambic. The iambic
character of the octonarius was established in the
last foot of the line.)
9- An iambic system is where iambic (or resolved
iambic) feet are strung together with no break at the
end of each line, e.g. Stich. 291-3, 275-7.
C. Iambic and Trochaic.
Such lines are sometimes mingled to produce an excited
effect, as in Stich. Act II Sc.i; also of. Oapt. 523ff
27
Dn Anapaestic.
lo Diaeresis, as in other metres, was observed very
strictly.
2o Hiatus and syllaba anceps occur at the diaeresis
some times.
3o The proceleusmatic foot was very common in Plautus•s
anapaesties.
4o The final foot did’not have to be anapaestic.
The anapaestic was one of the less successful of
Plautus’s metres, Clash of ictus and accent frequently
occurred.
IV Table of Metres.
(There are other, diverse interpretations of the metre
of the first seventeen lines. The question of the
metres of Plautine cantica has long been a most
vexatious one. Perhaps W B. Sedgwick is close to the
truth when he says^ that all the confusion' results
only from the fact that we do not have the music with
which these cantica were originally accompanied and
it was the music which marked the rhythm. The table
below is based upon Lindsay’s Schema Metrorum in
the O.C.T. of Plautus. However, the interpretation
of the first seventeen lines is a later one, appearing
in E »L_o_V 0, p«314fo)o
1. Glyconic *colon : Or'edCp) ego miseram
la-3 Pour Glyconic cola^ each with anacrusis:
fffisse Penelbpam
sofror , su(q)^ex animo ,
quae/tarn diu uiduaVf—'' VJ•— VJ VT",
_ _uiro sue caruit ;
3a Col. Reis.*: nam nos' ^ius animum . ^ ^
4-6 Vers . Reis.: de nos tris .factis nJoscimus ,/quarumV /.V , V — — , ?/
uirti) hinc apsunt, , ^
quorumqu^ nos negotiTs/apsent^ii^, it(a)
ut aequ^nh est ' i
—-, 1V ■■I —^ , —, / V —
sollicitas noctes et dies, soror\j\j
sumus semper. __ ^
7P7a Anapaestic monometes : no.-^tiCi:i) officium
nos facei# %equomst
8.8a Two GHyconi^ cola, _each _with_anacrusis : _
nequCe) id magis fMcimus /jucmi^nls ,pietas .^
9 " Vers. Reis: sed hic^^ soror, adsidedum:/multa uolo
. 1.
26
10c Variation of the Glyconic _col£n ^with substitution
of trochee for dactyl) : lg;qui_de re' uiri.
10a. Col. Reiz: saÿaene/ amabo?
11-14 Variations or Glyconic colon + Col.Reiz:
(w \-^ s\ s)
sp^ro qu'idfei^'et u o DTo ;|sed hoc, soror, crucior
pattern tuore meumqu(e)|ade(o), ünïce quô) ünus
clj/uïbus “êx ômnibus|probus perhïbëtur,
Wûn nûnc inprobi|uïrQ offic^q) ûti
15o Further variation of Glyconic colon (effacement
of trochee and substitution of trochee for dactyl)v\ntK
-I- Col. Reiz: /_ ^ u __ v. v _
u:|ris qui tantasj|apsentibus nostris
16,17 Variations of Glyconhc grop^er :
facit iniurias^inmerito _
nosqu(e^ âb eis abducere uolt.
18-47 Anap. dim. (28,32,38,44,47 catalectic)
48-57 lam.sen.
58-154 Troche sept. (67 iam.oct.)
155-273 Iam.sen.
274 Iam.oct.
275-7 Iam.system
278-9 Iam.oct0
280 Troche oct.
281-7 Iam.oct.
288 Troch.dim.cat.
288a Iam.sen.
289,90 Iam.oct.
291-3 Iam.system
294-9 Iam.oct.
300 Iam.sen.
301 Iam.oct.
302 Troch.oct.
303-5 Iam.oct,
306-8 Iam.oct (or Troch,sept.)
309 Anap.sept,
310-12 Anap.oct. (312 corrupt)
313-18 Anap.dim.cat.
319-20 Anap,oct.
321 Anap.sept.
322-4/5 Anap.dim.cat.
326,326a Anap.dim.acat.
327 Anap.sept.
328,9 Anap.oct,
330 Anap.trim.cat. (cf.Cure. 155)
331-401 Troch.sept.
402-504 Iam.sen.
505-640 Troch.sept.
641-72 Iam.sen.
673-82 Iam.sept.
683-761 Troch.sept. (702-5 Iam.oct.)
29
762-8 lara0sen,
769 Iam,octo
770,1 Iam.sept.
772,3 Vers.Reiz
774,5 lam.sept.
*Glyconic proper : ^ _
'Jirna.
- “ V j ■
colon :
— U VJ — Vj
*Colon Reizianum has this basic form: ^ Y.
Versus Reizianus consists of an iambic dimeter
followed by a Colon Reizianum. They are named after
the scholar Reiz, who first revealed the part
played by the colon in Plautus and in Greek drama.
30
MANUSCRIPTS OP PLAUTUS
We know Plautus to have been very familiar with
the requirements of stage-production, and so we
cannot expect that many, if any, changes were made
.to the author's script when the plays were first
produced in Plautus's own day. There is no evidence
that any play was performed on more than one occasion.
A century or so later, however, in the era of Pompey,
a renewed interest was taken at Rome in the old drama,
and plays from the pens of the great dramatists of the
previous century were 're-hashed'. Certain changes
were made in the plays themselves (scenes were
shortened etc.) to cater for the interests of the
new audiences, and at the same time, an interest was
taken in them as literature, and commentaries and
explanations appeared. Inevitably, glosses taken from
such commentaries crept into the text of the plays. Prom
the works of Varro, Verrius Placcus (whose work is
preserved only in a very fragmentary condition in
Paulus'8 edition of the works of Pestus), and Nonius,
we know the names of'some of these commentators or
grammarians - Aurelius Opilius, Aelius Stilo (Varro's
teacher), and Servius Clodius were amongst the best-known
The earliest surviving manuscript of Plautus is
known as the Ambrosian palimpsest (A). The original
writing is in majuscules, and dates back to the fourth
century A.D. It was erased in the seventh or eighth
century and the Book of Kings was written over it.
In the nineteenth century, chemicals were applied to
the palimpsest to remove the later v/riting and make
visible the comedies. A German scholar, W . Studemund,
was able to decipher a great deal of the majuscule
writing before the chemicals had damaged the parchment
over much. A great deal of new evidence remains to be
31
discovered from the palimpsest, hut up till now
(1965), requests to expose it to ultra-violet light
have unfortunately been rejected.
The plays best preserved in the palimpsest are
the Stichus, Persa, Poenulus, Pseudolus, and Trinummus.
All the other plays are preserved in part, except
the Amphitryo, Asinaria, Aulularia and Curculio.
There are other manuscripts extant which belong
to a different family from that of which A is the
sole surviving representative. They are known as the
Palatine family (P): B, the Codex Vetus, from the
tenth century, containing all twenty plays; C,the
Codex Decurtatus, from the early part of the eleventh
century, containing the last twelve plays (there had
been a first part containing the first eight); and
the Codex Ursinianus, D, of the eleventh century,
also containing the last twelve plays, and, of the
first eight, the Amph,, Asin., Aul,, and Capt 1-503 ;
These are all German manuscripts, so in all likelihood
their archetype was also German. Their minuscule
archetype (*pB(3)) stems from a lost majuscule
archetype (*pA), probably from the same period as
the Ambrosian palimpsest. There could have been little
time between the majuscule and minuscule archetypes.
Such errors of spelling as v/riting kino for the
common word hiirj. (in majuscules, the letter H was
written as the letter K) could not have remained
uncorrected through many generations. There are traces
of such errors in the extant MSS of the tenth and
eleventh centuries.
We may assume that the minuscule archetype (*pB(3))
contained all twenty comedies of Plautus, bound in"’two^
volumes, for in the extant MSS there is an obvious
division between the first eight plays (excluding the
Bacchides) and the last twelve plays (together with
the Bacchides). Prom this minuscule archetype, we
know that at least two copies were made. These are also
32
lost, but they were probably written in minuscules
in about the ninth century. The
first contained the first eight plays (excluding
the Bacchides) and is commonly known as *pBD ,
the second, *pCD contained the last twelve. Prom
*pBD three copies were made, B, B, and *pE, The
first, B, displays corrections made both by the
scribe himself (p2) and also some ty a second hand,
p3,who appears to have been an official corrector.
The latter correctiois were made in all probability
directly from the minuscule archetype, which 1 have
called , for they often present the text as
presented by D, but also some unique readings.
P
*P was the immediate source for four minor MSS,
0, J, V and E. The last twelve plays in B were copied
probably directly from *pB(3)o Prom the second part
of *P^(5)^ also, was copied another minuscule
manuscript, from which C and B come directly.
The majuscule archetype (%P^) was probably
similar to the Ambrosian palimpsest. The investigations
of Schoell, Seyffert and others show that some
archetype had nineteen to twenty-one lines to the
page. Lindsay, however, can prove from the Poenulus,
that an archetype existed which had thirty-three lines
to the page. Probably then, the archetype with thirtythree
lines to the page was the minuscule *P^^^ \
while the proto-archetype, *P A w h i c h we know had
a similar form to A's (for instance, at Epid.7 710
P omits inpudentiast, which occupies a short line at
the bottom of a page in A), bad an average of
twenty lines to the page (A had nineteen).
33
*P.
B(3)
First 8 plays
(corrected
from '‘‘«-pB(3)
direct
V E
Last 12 plays
As lias been said, from Republican times, there
have been two traditions : the ipsa verba of Plautus,
and the 'Revival' text. It could not be expected that
either A or the representatives of the Palatine
tradition v/ould preserve completely either one or the
other tradition. However, the evidence points to A ’s
stemming from the earlier. P ’s from the later,
(i.e. Revival) version, Stich. 48 ff. for instance
are possibly from the Revival version. They do not
appear in A (cf, notes on these lines in commentary).
1,483 may be from the Revival version, because P omits
the next tV\^o lines, which, however, appear in A,
This v/ould be an instance of the mixing of the two
traditions in A.
54
C 0 H M E ÎT T A R Y
35
Didascalia o
A didascalia was the notice of the first
performance of a play. In Plautus’s day, a playwright
sold his play to the government for a fee, provided
by the government or by some magistrate with political
ambitions. The play was produced once only (except
in extraordinary cases where it was repeated for
religious reasons^), and then was filed in the
government archives. It is almost certain that a
didascalic notice was filed with each play
The didascalia for the Stichus has been preserved
in A only.5 Studemund has shown^ that the didascalia
was attached originally to the Stichus in A. Whether
the attribution was correct still remains doubtful..
The problem is, briefly, as follows : the Stichus is
said to be an adaptation of Menander’s Adelphoi (line 2).
This play of Menander’s is certainly the original of
Terence’s Adelphi, which, however, bears little or no
resemblance to Plautus’s Stichus. But the original of
Terence’s play is referred to in a scholium as
^AôeXcpof p' , and this suggests the existence of
another Adelphoi, ^AôeXcpo f a ' , which is generally
5
accepted as the original of the Stichus;
lo If a performance at the games was interrupted, it
was considered unpropitious, and proceedings had to be
begun anew. Such repetitions were known as instaurationes
2o CoHo Buck, op o cit., p.5°
3o The only other Plautine didascalia extant is that of
the Pseudolus. It is in a very fragmentary state.
4o V/o Studemund, ’De Actae Stichi Plautinae Tempore,’
Commentâtiones Philologae in honorem Theodori Mommseni,
Berlin: Weidmann, 1877 «
5. See p .I3ff0
36
H.Bu Mattingly argues that the didascalia
attached to the Stichus in A really belonged to
Terence’s Adelphi. It is in general a very close
parallel to the didascaliae of Terence’s plays: of
all these, the didascalia of the Adelphi is the only
one in which tibiae Sarranae are mentioned (of. 1#9
of the didascalia of the Stichus): both the
di'dascalia attributed to the Stichus and that of
the Adelphi. have the G-redc transcriptions, Adelphoi
and Menandru: it is possible that they were both
for Terence’s Adelphi as there are variant didascaliae
existing for Terence’s plays. If this was the case,
how then did the didascalia come to be attached to
the Stichus? The aediles mentioned in it held office,
according to Livy, in 200 B.C. This precludes any
possibility of the didascalia belonging to a play
of Terence. The compilers of an edition of Terence,
realising this, may have searched for a play to which
it could conceivably belong, because of the date,
^nd because of its two brothers/two sisters theme.
200 B.C. may, however, have been an incorrect dating.
Livy may have been mistaken. Mattingly suggests that
the two aediles mentioned may just as well have
held office in the year 144 B.C.
Though arguments against accepting the didascalia
as belonging to the Stichus seem plausible enough,
yet the safer course is to accept its authenticity.
To question Livy’s evidence is to tread very unsure
ground, and other evidence for rejecting the didascalia
should be almost conclusive of itself before doing so.
In the palimpsest, the didascalic notice is
written on the reverse side of the first leaf belonging
to the Stichus. Lines 1, 5? 7 and 10 are missing,
probably having been written in minium (red-lead)^
lo ’The Plautine Didascaliae,’ Athenaeum, 1957, XXXV,
pp.78-88 o
2. Studemund, op. cit., pp. 800 ff.
37
which has faded completely, the rest is written
in atramentum (black ink).
3 0 (fabula) acta ludis plebeis - The Ludi Plebeii
were the second public games to be introduced at Rome :
they were first held in the year 220 B.C. The games
were religious festivals, and included sports
(ludi circenses) as well as theatre (ludi scaenici).
They were financed by the government and often heavily
subsidised by an individual magistrate (see p .35).
LoR Taylor^ states, on the evidence of Livy,
that in 200 B.C. there were at least eleven days of
theatrical games, of which at least three days belonged
to the Ludi Plebeii. It is likely thatrmre than one
play was performed each day. Other regular games at
this period were the Ludi Apollinares, the Ludi
C_er_ialeG , the Ludi Megalenses, and ths Ludi Florales.
Apart from these, there were incidental games, such
as those normally held at funerals and dedications of
temples. Taylor’s estimated total of eleven days of
theatrical games does not take these into account.
4 o aed (ilibus) ^ pl(ebis).
8. Marcipor = Marci puer, i.e. ’slave of Marcus’.
For the change of puer \ -por, cf. soror from I.-E.
p
^swesor.
9. tibiis Sarranis - Sarra was the city of Tyre in
Phoenicia,5 The tibicen accompanied the cantica of a
play on a pair of pipes, which were either of equal
1. ’The Opportunities for Dramatic Performances in the
Time of Plautus and Terence,’ TAPhA, 1937, LXVIII,
pp. 284-304.
2. V/.M. Lindsay, The Latin Language, Oxford: Clarendon
Press, 1894; p. 545 n.
3« Servius, ad G-eorg. II 506 : Sarrano ostro, Tyria
purpura; quae enim nunc Tyros dicitur. olim Sarra
vocabatur.
38
or unequal length. Of the type mentioned here and
in the didascalia of Terence’s Adelphi, Servius says
(ad A e n . IX 615): sunt pares et aequales, habent
cavernas.^
The tibicen is invited later in the Stichus
(11.715 ff.) to lay aside his flute and join in the
drinking party, and for seven lines (762-8), the
metre changes back to iambic senarii, the normal
dialogue metre, while the accompanist,is otherwise
occupied.
Argumentum I.
In the palimpsest, the first leaf belonging to
the Stichus has on its right side not two but three
layers of writing (see p . 30f). Studemund was
the first to discover a non-acrostic argument to the
Stichus, written over a portion of the prologue to
the Casina, and in turn covered by a portion of the
Book of Kingsc He does not date precisely the writing
of the non-acrostic argument, but states that it
was written some time after the fourth century A.D.
and before the seventh-eighth century.^ This portion
of the prologue to the Casina, written by the same
hand as wrote the restof A ,^ was in alllikelihood
written twice by mistake (itoccursagain in A at its
correct place, at the beginning of the Casina),
and when the mistake was discovered, the writing on the
one copy was erased and an argument to the Stichus
written in its place.4
lo Quoted by A. Ernout, editor of P. Terentius .Afer,
Comedies, Bud^ Library.
2. Studemund, o p . cit., p. 802.
3 o ibid . , p c. 803 .
4 o ibid., p o 802.
39
It can be assumed that the argument read after
this fashion : "Two sisters are taken to wife by two
brothers who, however, since they are seeking their
livelihood, have gone abroad and been away from their'
homeland for a long time; the father chastises his
daughters because they remain faithful to their
husbands ^ . etc.,
Only four other Plautine plays have a non-acrostic
(as well as acrostic) argument. They are Amphitryd ,
Aulularia, Miles Gloriosus and Pseudolus.
Argumentum 11.
The arguments wlich have been preserved with the
works of Plautus were not written by Plautus himself,
but at a later date by grammarians who edited his
works o
3 1 sustinere - Plautus uses this word at Merc.476
in one of its figurative senses (in the sense of
fero, patior, Porcellini - sustineo II, 3)« The
sense in which it is used in this argument is itself
an extension of the former (patienter exspecto,
Porcellini sustineo II, 4) ,, but this usage
appears to belong only to post-Augustan Latin.
3 o nactae forent - Parts of the verb esse (’to be’) in
Latin were formed either from the I.-E. root
or the alternative ^bheu- (of. English ’is’, ’be’).
The imperfect subjunctive was formed with an -se- suffix,
which gave the alternative forms, es-se-m, and
fu-S8-m, which became fo-re-m.^ In classical Latin
literature, essem is the common form, though forem
(fores etc.) does occur in Cicero’s letters. Porem (etc.)
is common in the Comic poets.
1. Studemund, op. cit., p , 806.
2, C Lo Buck, Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin,
Illinois : University of Chicago Press, 1933, p.274,
301. Por the development of forem from fusem, ibid.,
p.132, 80.
40
Personae
Listings of the casts (in order of appearance)
do not appear in either A or P for any of the plays.
Panegyris. At the head of Act I, sc.i, the name
of one of the two sisters appears as Philumena in A,
but in all the other MSS, and everywhere else in
A , the name appears as Panegyris. Lindsay considers^
that Philumena may have been the name given to this
sister in the Revival text, or may even have been
an alternative offered by Plautus himself. It is a
very fitting name for a member of this loving family.
Pamphila^ (A : Pinacium, P). The name of the second
sister is nowhere mentioned in the text of the Stichus
It was the habit of scribes, where their archetype,
was lacking a name from a scene-heading, to replace
it from the text, This can be seen from the erroneous
replacement in the scene-headings in P of Pinacium
as the name of the second sister (probably a result
of a misunderstanding of 1.284)
Pinacium. (AB: Pinacium, cett.) . The prblem of the
boy-slave's name can be solved metrically. Pinacium
V V f
is from the Greek mCvaÇ (see below,
lo274ffo, notes), and it is a proceleusmatic word. The
name Pinacium, on the other had, could come only from
the Greek 6ivp 5 which would produce in Latin a long
second syllable. It is essential for the metre at
11.284 and 334 that the name have proceleusmatic
scansion.
1, V/oMo Lindsay, Ancient Editions of Plautus. St.
Andrew’s University Publications No. 3, Oxford: James
Parker & Co., 1904? p .102f.
2. ibido, p .105 of. p.94= In the Cistellaria, in P,
the slave Lampadio is erroneously referred to in the
scene-headings throughout as Lampadiscus, apparently
because this is the form in which the name first appear
in the actual text. Cist.344 =
41
Sa/n 7garinus. See notes, 1. 433 =
A gives no indication of the characters to whom the
speeches are to be allotted. B does this for all other
plays except the Stichus. CD have indicated in some
places, and not in others, to whom the speeches should
be allotted.^
Act I, Scene i .
The scene is set in a street in Athens.
Panegyris, accompanied by her sister, enters from
within her own house. She leaves the door open
(cf.lo87). She is singing to the accompaniment of the
pipes. The two women probably take up their posit jcns
downstage in front of Panegyris’s (Epignomus’s ) house.2
There are three house-doors (the usual number) on
the stage, and from these, as well as from the wings,
entrances and exits will be made during the play.
Miss Mary Johnston has suggested^ one practicable
stage-setting for this play, with the house of
Epignomus lying to the spectators’ left, that of
Antipho to the spectators’ right, and that of
Pamphilippus in the centre. Perhaps a more effective
stage-setting would be to have the houses, from the
spectators’ left to right, belonging to Antipho,
Pamphilippus and Epignomus respectively. At 1.320
Antipho and Pamphilippus would very likely have
stopped to talk in front of Antipho’s house (the
lo P. Ritschl, quoted by G . Goetz in the Preface
(p oXiii) to the Stichus in Ritschl’s 2nd edition of
Plautus, Comoediae , Vol. II Leipzig: Teubner, 1883 =
2, They bring out with them, or there have already
been placed on stage, two chairs, one a stool, the
other a more comfortable chair (see notes, 1.93)=
3. M . Johnston, Exits and Entrances in Roman Comedy,
New York: V/.P, Humphrey Press, 1933 ? p.30.
42
first they come to on their entrance from the
direction of the harbour), before each went to his
own place. This would allow Epignomus, whose house is
thus on the opposite side of the stage, quite
naturally to miss seeing his brother for the space
of four lines. With .this stage-setting, also, when
Pinacium comes in at 1.274 from the harbour, he will
have far more scope to play his part of the servus
currens, since his message is for Panegyris, whose
house will then be on the opposite side of the stage
from where he enters. If Nixon’s suggestions for
the movements of Crocofcium after 1.154 are correct
(see notes, 1.154), then such a stage-setting will
be impracticable, as there is no other house-door
between Epignomus’s and the exit to the forum in
front of which Crocotium can stop and talk to
another slave. However, it is perhaps better to imagine
that there was an interlude after 1.154>
W. Kamel considers that in the ’original’ of the
Stichus, there were only two house-doors and that
Plautus introduced a third in order to stage (outside
it) the carousal scene which ends the play. He
considers the house of Pamphilippus dispensable.
It is mentioned at 1.147 and 1.674-5= At 1.147,
Pamphila says she will not go into her sister’s house,
but into her own: in the original, Pamphila could
just as easily have returned home through the garden
gate (cf.449ff") which connected the backyards of the tvo
houses. At 1.673 Pamphila’s maid Stephaniu’m comes out
of Epignomus’3 house, whereas, if there had been a
third house (in the original) she might just as
well have come out from there, having crossed from
Epignomus’s house through the garden gate. Kamel may
well be correct in supposing that the original had
1= The Sources of Plautus, Ph.D. Thesis. London 1950,
p.211 ff.
43
only two house doors. The reason he suggests for
Plautus’s introduction of a third is clarified if
we assume that the actual feast preceded the
drinking-party and was held inside the house (see
notes, 1=686)0 As Epignomus’s house was already in
use for the masters’ banquet, the only other
possibility would be Pamphillipus’s house,where
in fact two of the slaves, Stephanium and Sangarinus,
lived.
Miss Law, in her dissertation, Studies in the
Songs of Plautine C o m e d y ^ (Chap. Ill),^ shows that,
except in three cases, Plautine songs bring a
character or characters onto the stage (as here) and
also, that very few songs are important as
preliminary exposition. (The reason is clear; it is
often difficult to hear the words of a song,
especially if the singer’s articulation is poor.)
Here, however, Plautus has used a song which acts as
a prologue. The passage which follows, (11=48-57),
in ordinary dialogue metre, was possibly added to
ensure that the exposition was clearly understood by
the audience, who may not have been able to grasp all the
words of the song. (But see notes, p. 56}.
The Stichus, Epidicus, Persa and Cistellaria
are the only Plautine plays which begin with a song.
The Cistellaria’s opening song is in the form of a
trio, the rest are duets.
p "A
3a. e^ius - Lindsay finds that when certain
pronouns are emphatic, the genitive singular is scanne;
thus : Tllius, istius, cuius, huius, Fius, and when
1. As reviewed by P.O. Plickinger, 1925-6, XIX,
pp« 94-96n
2. The'text used throughout is W.M. Lindsay’s Oxford
Classical Text.
3.. Lindsay, E.L J/". , p <■64ff •
44
not emphatic, cuius, huius, eius (the words
ille and iste are emphatic always, of themselves):
cuius , huius, and eius are found only r. \r\. : iambic
shortening.
The colon Reizianum is used here as a sort
of dividing line between the opening five lines,
all of the same metre, and the follov/ing three
lines, versus Reiziani. This according to Lindsay
is a common function of the colon Reizianum.^
5o aequom - After u, vowel or consonant, the
change of o_ to u did not take place until the
2
end of the Republic. The earliest example is
suum beside suom in an inscription of 45 B.C. The
£ in Q-sterns , when not preceded by u, is kept down
to about 200 B.C. in inscriptions.
6. soror sumus semper - N.B. alliteration. This is
reminiscent of the native Latin Batumi an verse, which
favoured alliteration, an effect not exploited to the
aame extent by the Greeks.
10. 10a. - appear in A as two lines, as Lindsay
prints them in the O.C.T. He claims that this is to
give the reader warning of a novel type of lino to
follow.
It is very likely that the archetypes of both
A and Behave similar colometry, although it is not
possible to prove this was the case. Ror in the extant
minuscule manuscripts, the line division has been
abandoned to a very large extent for the sake of
5
saving space.
10 ibid., p o279.
2. Stolz-Leumann, I, p.61.
3. C.L. Buck, op. cit., p.83.
4. Lindsay, E.L.V., p.314.
5o Lindsay, A .E .R ., p.80.
45
10. yiri - genitive singular of the noun, used
collectively, in place of the adjective virili, which
would not fit metrically. cf. re uxoria, Ter. And.829 =
10a. - Satin salve? was apparently the more
usual formula, although it does not appear in the
extant works of Plautus.
' ajnaho - a polite form of address, the sense of
amp being very much weakened.^ It is usually only
used by women, never by men addressing men, and only
very occasionally by men addressing women.2
%
Bennett thinks that the usage originated in
connection with imperatives; so that die, amabo
meant originally ’Tell me. I will love you for it.’
The usage was extended to other combinations,
particularly questions (as here). The formulaic
use of amabo is borne out by the fact that ^ is
rarely added (exception - Bacc. 44).
11-14c The Accusative and Infinitive construction
after verbs of emotion is an extension of its use
after verbs like spero, desidero etc = Many such
verbs are found constructed with the accusative
and infinitive throughout Latin literature :
crucior, however, only in Early Latin (discrucior
in Catullus, Cicero and Caelius)
- an accusative of the inner object, verging
on an adverbial accusative, which is merely a
development of the plain accusative of the inner object.
1. Ernout-Meillet, amo.
2. Lodge, Lex.Plauto, amo II A 8.
3= C.E. Bennett, Syntax of Early Latin, 2 vols., Boston
Allyn & Bacon, 1910-14, Vol.I p.41f=
4= Stolz-Leumann II i , p. 35o ff.
46
The emergence of id., idem^ hoc, quid
(ec-9 num-), also nil, with adverbial force, was
early. Apart from the adjectives expressing quantity
(muIturn, nimium, jgagnum), the only other adjective
which appears in Plautus’s work with adverbial force
is hibernum, Pud.69
17. volt - see notes, 1.5.
18. haec - the more emphatic form ofthe feminine
plur., hae-fce. In Classical Latin, the particle
-c_e is found attached permanently to the nom. , accus.,
dat., and abl. sing, of all three genders, and to
the nom. and accus. neuter pi. In the gen. sing,
and the oblique cases of the plural, the particle is
seldom found, and in Plautus andTerence, only before
a vowel. The nom. pi. hi see and the gen. horunc,
harunc, are found in Plautus ; dat. hisce, acc. hosce,
hasce, in Plautus and Cicero. The fern. pi. haec occurs
elsev/here at Plaut. Aul. 386, Ter. Eun.583, Cic.
Sest.5, and Ver. Georg. 3, 305.^
vitae me ... saturant - Saturo follows the
analogy of -pleo + gen. cf. Ter. Heaut. 868 ff.,
Ne tu propediem ... istius obsaturabere sed ...
cautim et paulatim dabis. In Plautus, verbs of
filling (pleo, com- , im-, re-, and less often oppleo),
prefer a gen. to an abl. of instrument. In prose,
-A
the gen. is/post-classical, Literally, ’sate me with
life’, i.e. ’make me tired of life’.
lo Stolz-Leumann, II, i, p.40
2. ibid., I, p.286.
3c ibid., II, i. p.82f,
47
18 fo - Note the alliteration at the end of each
line , soror saturant, senio.. sunt. See notes,
I 060
19. dividia is from the verb dividere = Prom its
original meaning ’division’ came its meaning
’dissension’. Synonyms appearing for it in Varro and
in late Latin writers are dissensio, distractio
doloris, discordia, taedium, molestia. Plautus uses
it only in the phrase dividiae esse, and only with
reference to things, not persons. The phrase was later
used only by grammarians and imitators of archaic
style
senium - from seneo : originally implying
feebleness of old age, by metonymy it came to mean
’vexation’ or general ’chagrin’. Nonius gives as
synonyms taedium et odium. Lucilius and Terence
use it sometimes disparagingly to mean simply ’old
p
man’. In Plautus it is found only in the
predicative dative =
20c Ne with the imperative to express a
prohibition was fairly common in Early Latin, Bennett
cites^ 66 instances in Plautus and 14 in
Terence. Mostly such expressions tended to be
formulaic, such as ne time, ne fie etc.
1 c Ernout-Meillet, divide : Thes oLing.Lat.,
dividia,
2o Ernout-Meillet, senex.
3o ' SoEcL., I, 362,
48
lacruïïia - Later, a following labial (p, b> f
or m) had the effect of changing an original n to i
(cfo Plautine surrupuit, later Gurripuij^; mancupia
(Sticho 210), later maneipia; occupito (Stich,
760), later occipito).1
21o Tuos is probably an error of insertion in the MSSo
Without it, the line scans well as an anapaestic line,
consistent with the metre of the rest of the passage.
As far as the sense is concerned, tuos is superfluouso
The conversation is between two sisters, so there can
be no doubt as to whose father is the one in question.
24" neque ille sibi mereat.o. 'nor would he be
trying to gain for himself the mountains of the
Persians, o.V oT c\ovr-^ that
na , cc»->Vd
icSo 'even iC-byobing so^gain for himself the mountains
of the Persians, he would certainly not do that’.
Lersarum montes qui esse aurei perhibentur There
are several mentions in ancient literature of
’The Gold Mountains’. Van Leeuwen, commenting on
p
Aristopho Acharn. 82, says: Aurea omnia Graecis erant
in longinqua ilia Ecbatanorum Susorumque regions
quam qui obtineret fjbp Tw Ail tlXo ^top
Tt^pL êpfCetv (Herod. 5, 49) posse videbatur.
Auream illam Xerxis platanum in memoriam nobis revocant
scholia. JoO. Thomson^ mentions the following
occurrences: from Varro’s ^Av6pcotlc?tlo\lç' 5
non fit thesauris, non auro pectus solutum:
non demunt animis curas ac religiones
Persarum montes, non atria divitis Qrassi.
lo Stolz-Leumann I., p.85.
2o Aristophanes, Acharnonses, ed. J. Van Leeuwen
5. ’The Gold Mountains’, OPT 1956, LXX, p.2 f.
^ , o-p. Men .
oe ... vjH te. perdLocrv^ (okiV Coai of \^o\^ rv\erccuv>
(Ae-orvjry-i cAw; vivons 'rvwVtv. -Vvjpe of - cAaose. recurs
\iher^xture. t&r-
49
He tries to place the Persarum montes more exactly
by referring to passages in Herodotus (iii, 116; iv,
15,25,27), where there is an account of a Scythian
trade-route from the Black Sea: beyond its terminus
there is hearsay of a high range where Griffins guard
gold from one-eyed Arimaspians. Further , there is
mention (iii, 94, 98, 102-5) that the Indus province
pays the Persian king an immense tribute in gold-dust:
most of this is got by a noibhern tribe from the sandheaps
of great ’ants’ in a desert. In Plautus, there
is another mention of the gold mountains, at Aul.
701-2 : picis divitiis, qui aureos montis colunt,
ego solus superOo In connection with this passage,
Thomson refers to an interesting piece of folklore which
connects woodpeckers and treasure. If one plugs up a
woodpecker’s nest with a wedge, when the woodpecker
returns, it brings a magic plant (the springwort),
which it will drop, if enough noise is made, when it
is temporarily delayed in getting into its nest.
The plant causes the wedge to jump from the nest and
will also open the way to any treasure,^
29. “ Temporal in Early Latin most frequently
takes the perf. indie, (it always takes this in
Plautus when used, as here, in the sense of ex quo^),
less often the historic pres. (cf. Merc . 100),
imperf., pluperf. and fut. The way in which it is
used here, in connection with a substantive expressing
time, is found again in Silver Latin, e.g. Tac. Ann.14,
55, 1: octavus (annus est), ut imperium obtines,
cf. Mart. 10, 105, 7.^
lo J .G. Frazer, ’Balder the Beautiful, ii’. The
Golden Bough, 5rd ed., London: Macmillan, 1915.
2. Lodge, Lex. Plaut., ut II D 5.
5. Stolz-Leumann II, ii, p.656.
50
31 ffa (ut abierunt hie tertius annus est), quom
neque participant nos (nura) ipsi valeant... neque
redeunt.
32. ecquid - Questions introduced by ecquis,
ecquid , often indicate a certain degree of
importunity
p
34-5. Gildersleeve and Lodge say that an was
probably originally a simple interrogative particle :
Meillet and Vendryes believe^ that it may have
been an affirmative interrogative particle. It is not
certain whether at first an had any disjunctive
force in simple questions, but later it became
identified with disjunctive questions. The question
in this line hardly asks for information. It is largely
exclamatory, as is usually the case with such
questions introduced by an.
id... doles quia - quia and quod were very
frequent in Plautus after verbs of emotion. In
classical times, quod is generally preferred, except
notably in Cicero’s letters, of. notes 1.11-14.
36. ita pol - Braune finds^thatthe only instances
where ita can have a positionother than first in a
sentence where reference is made to something said before,
are: a) when it is in reply of one speaker to another,
where the speaker is either approving or disapproving
of what the other speaker has said, or b) in
lo Bennett, S .E.L.,I, 476.
2. Lato Gramm. , 457 n,3->
3. Traitéde grammaire comparée des langues classiques,
Paris : Ed. Champion, 1924, p.851.
4- Bennett, S E .L., I, 485.
5. To Braune, Observationes grammaticae et criticae ad
usum ’ita’ ’sic"’ ’tam’ (’tamen’) ’adeo* particularum ~
Plautinum ac Terentianum spectantes, Berlin: S=
C a l v a r y C o . , 1882, p. 15f.
51
subordinate clauses introduced by s^, nisi, quando ,
cujD, or where its clause is dependent on a verb of
saying.
' pol^ - The oath is used by men more often in the
form edepol, by women more often in this form, pol.
In Plautus, men swear by Pollux to about the same extent
as women, but by Terence’s time, to judge from his
plays, men were abandoning the oath. Also in a fragment
of Titinius, a contemporary of Terence (preserved
in Char.I, 198, 17K), it is shown to have been
effeminate then. Ullman finds that in the plays of
Terence, women use oaths far more frequently than
men and far more often than in the plays of Plautus.
He suggests that this may point to an emancipation of
women betwem the time of Plautus’s death and when
Terence began producing plays (166 B.C.). % e n pol
refers to a whole clause or sentence, it stands at
the beginning, except after scilicet, atque, neque,
at, sed ; referring to one word only, it follows the
word, as here, and below, 1.59.^
colunt - Prom the most ancient times, colo in
Latin seems to have had two senses, ’to inhabit’ and
’to cultivate’ (these two ideas being connected in
the case of a rural population, of. agricola).3
In the second sense it is used also metaphorically of
abstract things, e.g. virtutues, officia, artes,
litteras, etc. With officium it occurs here, also
at 1.40 and at Cic, Off. 1.4.^
lo Note based on B.Lc Ullman, ’By Castor and Pollux,’
CW, 1945, XXXVII, 87-9.
2c Lodge, Lex. Plaut., pol.
3. Ernout-Meillet, colo.
4. ‘Thes. Ling. Lat., 2 colo II c.
37, sis < si vis : consonantal u in Latin often 52
disappeared between similar vowels.^ of. divitiis,
1.134. _ '
isjtuc -- hero <C istud -f c(e ) so tha final
syllable in i_s'W c is long by position, not by
nature- (of. notes on hoc, 1.127). The emphatic
form of this word is especially frequent in Plautus,
being found in the nom. and acc. sing,, the nom. and
acc, neut, pl., and the abl. sing.3 Istaec
(fern, pic.) occurs at Men. 520, 766, Pers. 498,
Rudc. 563: istoscin at Asin. 932: istisce at M,G.421.
cf. notes on haec, 1.18. I
38, nam quid iam - nara and iam both add emphasis
to the question. Panegyris is no doubt surprised at '
her sister’s sudden reproach. j
39, meo animo - ’to ray mind’ or ’I feel, think’ !
(parenthetical); together with meo quidem animo , :
a favourite expression of Plautus. Another similar
and also very frequent phrase is meo arbitratu,
which is more formal, a considered opinion. Plautus
uses them with little differentiation, but the first
is found only as meo quidem animo, while alongside
meo arbitratu appear tuo, suo arbitratu etc. .
_____ meo must be totally elided, having undergone
synizesis. The same is the case at Capt. 495»^
410 quq,^bi(en) ego - quamobrem is scanned as a
disyllable throughout Plautus, except at Amph. 552.
‘ifem) etsi is also disyllabic here (but cf. at !
Pseudc 244). ;
43. inprobi - is a cretic word, shortened here to a
dactyl (cf. aequius, 1.97). Lindsay finds that such a !
reduction takes place normally only in anapaestic i
cantica.^ I
1, Lind&ay, Lat. Lang., p. 52.
2o Lindsay, E.L V. , p. 119-
3o Stolz-Leumann I, p.286.
4. Lindsay, E.L V ., p .61,
5o ibid., p.187. •
6 o ibid., p .46. j
53
44-0 nos faciant -an unparallelled construction, unless
the verb is taken in the sense aestirno, which is
unsuitable here. However, as *"the reading is wellattested
in the MSS, it is unwise to emend, though
Leo's suggestion nobis faciant, and Ussing's in nos
faciant are possible and more normal.
tarn - here the equivalent of tamen. of. Bacc.
1194, Epido 585o
45 o Lindsay scans this line, as well as 1.21, as
glyconic + anapaestic monometer. Yet it has been shown
(see notes 1.21) that tuos in 1.21 is in all likelihood
an error of insertion, and that if it is excluded
from the text, the line will scan the same as the
rest of the scene, apart freran this line, 45= It is
possible, however, that this line too is corrupt.
A '8 sij gives better sense than P's simus, but the
position of the clause, ne quid magis sit, is a little
unnatural : 'If they are irresponsible,..o.yet, lest
we add to the injury, we shouldo« . . etc', Some
editors consider it to be a corruption of one line
only and have emended as follows :
nos magis omnibus obnixe opibus (Ussing)
nos tris omnibus obnixe opibus (Speng, as quoted by
Ussing)
eo magis omnibus obnixe opibus (Goetz).
However, an early conflation seems more likely here,
to judge from the very length of the line as it appears
in the MSS. Something like Leo’s proposal may well
have been the original reading :
ne quid magis simus in culpa ijlis
nos hie omnibus obnixe opibus.
It may, however, be preferable to read sic in place of
hic, as it may have been the source of A ’s sit. If
it is correct to assume that the line as Lindsay
54
reads it is corrupt, then the whole scene (ll. 18-47)
can he treated as an anapaestic canticum without
variations.
49. honores - hero, and at Pers. 512, the plural
has been substituted' for the more usual honorem of the
common phrase, honorem habere alicui, ’to respect
someone’.
50. huiust - monosyllabic hero. Por the slurred gen.
sing, of personal pronouns , see notes, 1.5a.
52 0 neque est quorate.- The clause beginning
with quor Bennett^ classes as a subjunctive clause
developed from the deliberative, the origin of
which is seen in Ter. And.105, quid obstat quor non
fiant o
rutarier - a form of the pres. pass. infin.
belonging to Early Latin and employed as an archaism
by the Augustan poets and their imitators. Even in
the time of Plautus, it can hardly have been as current
as the form -i, -ri, for it is confined to the end
of iambic and trochaic lines and is never found with
a short antepaenultima (except in one instance^),
restrictions which indicate that it was a form used
only for the sake of the metre.^ The origins of the
form are obscure.^
55- ’.o.But in the long run (postremo), the decision
(lit. it is placed) is in our father’s hands (lit.
power)o’
1. S.E.L., I. 248.
2. It is unfortunate that Lindsay (Lat. Lang., p =557)
fails to mention that this one exception (Men.1006,
deripier) to the second rule is also an exception to the
first o
3. Lindsay, Lat. Lang., p.537.
4. C.B. Buck, op. cit., p.306 : Meillet & Vendryes,
opu cit., p.334.
55
52 ffo The sane sentiments are reflected in fragment
from Menander’s Epitrepontes^, where Pamphile, the
loving wife, is being importuned by her father to
leave her husband, who is supposedly having an affair
with a flute-player. She says to her father:
wo'Tc jXSj Tcpog Tfjç ^EcTTfaç-j
àTiocrmepT^cr^ç-àvcpèg w puvJk icraç*
ydpLv ÔLxafav xa l 9 LXdvGpcoxoVj udmep,
q Itw PC TadTpv. e l p{> p&v p fa
xpcfÇe LÇ a p o d X e f Tf|v 5^lu?)v è y ù
% e i p d a o \ i ^ CJÇ Ô8 L p,?) pem^aipyUvp') cp^petv.
55» in cogitando etc»-’The more I think about it
(lit. in reflecting ^hereon/), the more sorrowful I
p
become.’ Maerore augeor is an enallage.
57» The slight difference in meaning between the two
phrases opus est and usus est is more clearly understand'
able if a negative is affixed to both : ’there is no
need’/ ’it is no use’ (of. Amph.505,citius quod non
facto est usus fit quam quod facto est opus). Both
are found followed by the abl. of the perf. pass. part.
Opus est is also found with a nom. (Capt.164)
and possibly an' acc. (True.88). Usus est is found
with the acc..3 (Opus est + acc. may be on the analogy
of usus est + acc.o^)
1, J.M.*Edmonds, The Fragments of Attic Comedy,
5 vols.,Leiden: E.J. Brill, 195?7 Vol 3B, p.1042, 1.39ff
2, Lodge, Lex. Plaut., augeo II 4»
3, W .Mc Lindsay, Syntax of Plautus, St. .todrew’s
University Publications No. 4, Oxford: James Parker & Co
1907, p»33»
4 » ibid .., P. 29» (utor + acc. is found in Plautus,
though not as frequently as utor+ abl. The construction
with the acc. is probably the older usage.
56
Because 11.48-57 do not appear in A, it is
generally agreed that -the lines are not the original
work of Plautus, and that they were possibly a legacy
of the recension of Plautus’s works which took
place in the first century B.C. (see p.30, 33)» Yet
the passage is not really superfluous-. Panegyris
has admitted that she considers that their
husbands have been neglectful of their duty (1.36):
but now she hastens to explain that, despite this,
she has no desire to desert hers, and she is only
afraid of her father’s intentions concerning her
marriage (1.54). If these last ten lines had not
been added, the audience would be left wondering
whether indeed at least one of the sisters (Panegyris)
was tired of the situation. Lines 51 ff» set
everything clear. (See also notes, p. 43)»
Act I, Scene ii.
58. Enter Antipho from his own house (see p. 4 If)»
Plautus’s audiences often saw the old man of the
play enter, irritably shouting orders to slaves or
others still within, e.g. Aul. 40 ff., M .G . 156ff.
59r habitu - the ablative supine, which is uncommon
in Early Latin and the poets, Plautus uses after
redeo, etc., as an ablative of separation, and
after certain adjectives, as hei^ as an ablative of
specification.^
60. quotcalendis - sometimes also written as tv/o
words: quoi here in the sense of quibusque.^
1. Lindsay, Syn.Plt., p.77.
2. Lodge, Lex.Plaut., quot 2
57
demensum cibun - 'food measured out’, i.e
’ration of food’. z
61. qui minus - qui is an old form of the ablative
singular of the interrog. (and rel.) pronoun qui.
It is very common in Early Latin, existing side by
side with the form quo.
______ facere depends on meministis, and therelative
clause on facere. 3
62, In Plautus,/threats introduced by/si or nisi ,
SI rxtsi ^
^usually takes the fut. perf. indie, or the pres. indic.
respectively (e.g. Cure.726, Asin. 670). This line,
however, is an exception tothe general rule.
The words quom ego revortar necessitate the use of a
fut. tense, (cf. Cas. 125, where the word semper also
necessitates a future.)^
;
65 c ’... else I’ll remind you with reminders (i.e.
whips) made of oxhide.’ Originally, monumentum is
anything which acts as a reminder. Later, it comes to
be used specifically as a reminder of the dead,
i.e. tombstone.
64. ’My place looks to me like a pigsty, not a house !’
The reading of either A or P is possible here (if
P ’s mihi is scanned as a monosyllable). A ’s reading,
from which, however, hie may have been dropped simply
in error, seems preferable all the same; for hie
1. Lindsay, Synt. Pit., p.l25f=
58
is superfluous when habitare is already qualified
adequately by mecumi In his Introduction to Latin
Textual Emendation,^ Lindsay says: ’The first duty
of a Carolingian monk-copyist was to correct
the barbarous spelling of his original... In manuscripts
of the period preceding the Revival of Learning under
Charlemagne we find barbarisms like littoris for
lectoris...auxerint for hauserint.’ These mispellings
were due mainly to the change there had been in
pronunciation in Late Latin, e.g. e and ± in certain
circumstances v/ere pronounced alike, as were also
o and u. One such change was that of the intervocalic
h, which came to be pronounced like the Greek ^
and so, in manuscripts before the Carolingian Reform,
the writing of -ch- for -h- was a prevato.t mistake.
If we assume that in the line at present under
discussion mihi had been written by one of these
earlier copyists as michi, and if we allow for a
further error, through dittography of the ch, (to
produce michich), then it is easy to see whence P ’s
copyist had his mihi hie,
N.B. in this line, three pairs of alliterative
words o
65 » sultis < si vultis, formed on the analogy of
sis V si vis,^ (see notes, 1 =57)»---- X --------
66. iam - is used here in the sense of statLm, ilico,
’in the time immediately approaching, forthwith,
directly’, a common usage in Plautus,
67o This line, an iambic octonarius as Lindsay reads it,
1, London: Macmillan, 1896, p »12f
2o Lindsay, Lat.Lang., p =181,
5 0 Lodge, Lex.Plaut,, iam II D,
59
marks a break in the ^ontinuity of the scene..
Antipho probably strolls downstage to cogitate.
Lindsay remarks that, just as Shakespeare was in
the habit of completing a scene of blank verse with
two rhyming lines, so in Plautus an isolated iambic
line or two will be introduced into a scene of
trochaic8 (or vice versa, e.g. Aul. 393) for some
special effect. cf. Epid. I64f. ^
ind’ - The final -q of such words as inde ,
ille, etc., was suppressed in pronunciation except
when the word was emphatic.^ See notes on 11.86
(delude), 159, 505, 768.
68. The ^ v confusion in the MSS is the same type
as those mentioned in the notes on 1.64= A is
admittedly an earlier manuscript, and confusion became
much more rife later on. This particular confusion
appears again in A at 11.146 and 223=
71= gratiam per (A)- ’courteously'. The position of
the preposition following the word it governs is
unusual. Quam per occurs in Plautus at Poen.13,
but quam is a relative pronoun, with which the
construction is much more normal, though confined
mainly to Early Latin and the poets.3
The line, as Lindsay prints it, would be scanned:
grati/am p"^r/fel peti/düs , spe/r(61 ab eo//Tmpet/rass^e
Lindsay thinks that P ’s reading (gratiam a patre)
probably came from per being mistaken for a
1. Lindsay, E.L.V., p =288.
2. ibid., p .71 ff=
3 = Gildersleeve & Lodge, 413#
^ If iK e ScQ.nsio»n ^cxfre Ioffe.k^S(v/e.^ tk er\ pe~^ungos Kere as>
Le,l(=>r\^kr-^ Ha f W e f o v ) r 4 k viq lo r^ C c -f. I- a .o ^ v - ^ o l ^ )
^rsci Scao: ^ U ~
itrvwjS
60
contraction of patre in the minuscule MSS.^
P ’s reading, however, should not be dismissed
entirely and must be kept in mind as a possibility.
Though peto is at times used absolutely in Plautus,
the addition of an object (gratiam) clarifies
the sense, and the phrase a patre balances ab eo
in the second part of the sentence. With the reading,
a patre, the line scans:
grâti/Çam) a pat/rF si /petimus,/ spïïiço) ab e / b ')
impet/rasse/re,
y
and note that the diaeresis is preserved.
Patre should possibly be written oatri.^
Consonant stems often took ± - stem case endings
(and vice versa), and so at Capt.914 and Bacc.628
are found carni and criminin respectively, with the
abl. sing. - ± ending for third declension i- stems'?
A ’s petemus (?) would solve the problem of the
hiatus in the first version and allow the more
common patre in the second.
impetrassere - fut. infin, cf. notes 1.149.
72. Hau belongs only to Early Latin and to Vergil.
Plautus uses haud always before words beginning with
a vowel.^ As the form hau had died out in later
Latin, it was replaced by scribes in the MSS with
the form which was in current use, haud.
73. i.e. factura sum. The meaning, perhaps a little
obscure at first sight to the reader, would no doubt
have been made clear on the stage by gesture. However
1, Lindsay, Lat. Text. Emend., p.99.
2. But cfo E L .V o, p.117, where Lindsay produces
evidence from inscriptions of such a spelling as
cosoled (consuls),
3 0 ibid.. and Lindsay, Lat.Lang., p .181,
4. Lindsay, E.L.V.. p.120.
ul
with P's reading in mind (itself difficult
metrically), it is tempting to conjecture an original
reading something like neque quidem ego id factura
neque...
74. exorabilest^ exorabilis est. Nonius
Marcellus refers to this practice, of which abundant
traces remain in the MSS of Plautus. His explanation
of it, that the neuter has replaced the masculine
(or feminine), nay be true, for it is only in the
case of adjectives, as far as our MSS show, that
-is est became ^qst, and in all other cases
-ist was produced.^ cf. prostibilest, 1.765=
75= ratiocinor - 'reckon out by cold calculation'.
This is the only occurrence of the word in Plautus.
76 o utrum is taken up by an. in 1.78. The an in
lo77 joins the two quasi clauses. Lacessam and
temptem are subjunctives in an indirect question,
amplyfying quo pacto cum illis occipiam in 1.75=
77. 'As if I never were to feign anything against
them, or, as if I'd heard something in which they
deserved blame :, . '■ should I try them out with
rather, , wytn
gentlenesfj/or/threats. '
P's version is: quasi numquam quicquam in eas simulem
quasi nihil indaudiverim. P's in eas has better sense
than A's adeo, The nihil of P's version, however, is
incorrect. Antipho summarises his plan of action with
the words, an temptem leniter an minaciter,
11.78-9. The first quasi clause refers to the first
alternative (temptem leniter), the second to the
second alternative (an minaciter). So quid is the
correct reading. To keep A's an in 1.77 makes the
passage smoother.
1. Lindsay, E.L.V., p.76
^ Ernouf A ' ^ r a Ks\,
62
79. litis ~ originally simply 'quarrels', but
came to apply especially to those quarrels which
were taken to court, and this is the normal use of
the word. Nixon (Loeb ed.) translates here, 'protests'
meas -- i.e. filias .
80. alio - (adv.), 'elsewhere'. In Plautus, a
pronominal adverb is often used in place of a pronoun,
of.1.142, quo, and Rud.1409, dimidium tibi sume,
dimidium hue ccdo.
82, quam ob rem - disyllabic. See notes, 1.41.
83. minime - 'by no means'.
_____ turbas - much louder quarrels than litis :
'hubbub, uproar'.
factu - cf, notes, 1.59 =
85. perpavefaciam, perplexabiliter - probably both
Plautine inventions. Por all Antipho's show of
boldness and self-confidence concerning the handling
of his daughters, they easily win him over, and
he goes off feebly to consult his friends about
it (1.143).
86. postid..,igitur, deinde - probably spoken
hesitantly. It is obvious that Antipho in fact has no
concrete plans of action.
Postid appears to be used in Plautus in the sense
of the Prench puis, 'and then': whereas postea and
postilla can be used either in this sense(e.g. Asin.
771, Men.342), or in the sense apYès (adv., e.g.
Capt.203, Poen.467), or with a negative in the sense
encore une fois (e.g. Poen.358, Capt.118). cf. notes
on postilla, 1.529
_____ faciam palam - Nixon takes this as 'make it plain
how I feel', i.e. to his daughters. It is probably
preferable to translate, 'You'll see !' (i.e. make it
plain to you - the audience - how I feel), Antipho
follows this with the equally ambiguous statement,
multa scio faciunda verba.
63
deinde - is the pre-vocalic form in Plautus
dein the preconsonantal, where the ~e has beei
'squeezed out'.^.See notes 1.67 (inde).
87= sed apertast foris -'But the door is open', (i.e.
to Panegyris's house). Till now, Antipho has not been
looking in the direction of his daughter's house,
in front of which the two women have been sitting
and talking; but he has been musing aloud to himself,
standing probably upstage, in front of his own house
(or perhaps even downstage - his daughters, being too
engrossed in their talk, would not have noticed him),
his back turned half to them, further towards
the right than centre stage (i.e. spectators' right).
foris - The singular, foris ,~~Ts not found in
Plautus except in the set phrases foris (con)crepuit
(where the plural form is also possible), and, as
here, foris aperitur, apertast.^ See also notes
1.596 (foras).
89 0 ecastor - an oath used largely by women (cf.
Gellius 11.6). It constitutes over 50^ of all oaths
used by women in Plautus, but by Terence's time,
the percentage has dropped to possibly signifying
that the oath had lost most of the force it used
to have. cf. notes 1.36^ (pol).
_____ advorsum - used adverbially here. Advorsum
can also be a preposition.
1. Lindsiy, B .L .V ., p. 71.
2. The only exceptions are Gas.891, and also Bacc.833,
where only one flap of the door is referred to,
(G, Abraham, Studia Plautina, Jahrbucher fUr
classiacbe Philologie, vol.I, 179-244, Leipzig: Teubner
1885, p.200f.
3 o B.L, Ullman, op. cit.
64
89 o occupcinus - 'anticipate ’1 ? cf. Greek
cpGcfvu) g 'Let us go up and kiss him
firsto'
p
90o Lindsay suspects that istic (A) is an error
of insertion. Often the copyists wrote words in
between the lines in explanation of the text, and
often these words came to be included erroneously
in the text.
92 V salsura evenit - a difficult phrase. Probably
it is best to interpret it as follows : salsura
is used in a bad sense, meaning literally, 'oversalting,
distasteful to the palate', and evenit
is used in the sense of contigit.3 This would be
a fitting reply for an old man who is desperately
trying to avoid having his strength of mind weakened
by his daughter's embraces. A slightly less likely
interpretation is possible by giving the word
salsura a metaphorical connotation, and translating
'So much has a bitter taste befallen my soul ':
in this case, Antipho would be thinking of the
proposition he is about to make to his daughters
concerning their marriage.
J.Po Postgate^ suggests the emendation salsura
evanescit, which is possible but unnecessary, and not
really consistent with the old man's determined
attitude at the beginning (later he is won over
completely, 1.143)= It is translated as 'My
strength of mind is fading', (Postgate quotes a
passage from Cicero de Div. ii, 17 - where
evanesce is used of vinum or salsamontum losing its
tang), and would probably have been said æ an aside.
lo Lewis & Short, occupe, I B 3=
2. Lat.Text.Emend., IV 2.
3 0 Lewis & Short, evenio. II A.
4o 'Notes on Plautus,' Emerita, 1913, XVII, 116-7=
65
94" bone - see p,2r (il, 2c),
"k
97 = aequiust- scanned as a trisyllable throughout
Plautus, so here it oust be treated as a dactyl,
and not as a spondee (with synizesis of q ) . In
Plautine prosody, cretic words are sometimes
reduced to dactyls, though usually only in anapaestic
verse,1 cf. 11.43, 223 = 'Whom is it more fair
that we should hold more highly than you, and, second
to you, our husbands ?'
postidea - ante-classical for postea, which
is also used by Plautus, cf. notes, 1.349=
98c matres familias - -as is the old ending of
the first decl. gen. sing., quite obsolete in
Plautus's time, except in this phrase and
pater familias, old legal phrases. (Paterfamilias
was the head of the household and its legal owner
and was called thus, whether he had children or
not.) In the phrases, familias is also, however,
found replaced by familae.
100. perinde - always a tribrachin Plautus, but
Terence scans it as an amphibrachat Heaut.195=^
According to the Latin grammarians (Priscian XV, 9),
3
it was pronounced with the accent on the first syllable.
1010 N.B. alliteration.
102. auceps - is originally a bird-catcher, fowler
(from avis, capip); and the word came to be applied
more broadly as a catcher of other things than birds,
e.g., as here, catcher of words, eavesdropper.
The dative which accompunies it is unusual : Cicero uses
an objective gen. after it. The most recent editors
1. Lindsay, E.L.V., p .40, 46.
2. Lindsay, E.L.V.. p.210.
3. VvLMo Lindsay, Journ.Phil. , 1893, X X I , p. 210.
E - r r \ c u t » o r i S e r r \ e v ^ c A o i i % o n ^ a e < ^ O Q r r \ s > ' t ,
oziV fincxV tiie c_orv\pn,rc^ f ive. , g^ecj^>est", |S> 'inut1 11s\
SO\fe ly Oo4 an urwncLf vroz) 4ccx4ure of
Co\loc^w\al Sy>eec:ln one Conn pcxr Q,V(We 4"o
lafhrc^cH" anofKer wov^cA info “Efiéz Coon^ra'f» ve cAeqree.
66
1of the Miles Gloriosus (Hammond, Mack and Moskalew )
treat the dat. after auceps '(sermoni , M. G .955 )
as a dative of disadvantage.
104-ff. Antipho begins his first plan, 'to try them
out v/ith gentleness ' (1.78). He asks three questions
how do you pick a respectable woman. Is a
maiden or a v/idow better? How do women avoid vice?
107 » quid istuc est quod..-together with quid id est
quod, q^^id hoc est quod , quid illuc est quod, and
simply, quid est quod, a common way of introducing
a question in Plautus, cf. the Prench formula,
Qu'est-ce que c'est..? Concerning the function of
p
'quod in these phrases, Bennett says :
'The way in which quod .. . developed its peculiar
force is not perfectly clear. Possibly a startingpoint
was-found in expressions like Men. 677, scin
quid est quod ad te venio? Stich. 107, 127. In
these the quod is originally an accusative of the
inner object, - 'Do you know what it is on which
I am coming to you?' 'What is that errand on which
you are coming?' 'This is the errand on which I am
coming to you.' But this meaning easily passes into
that of’'V/hat reason is there why?' 'This is the
reason why.' Assuming that the idiom in question
established itself in the way.suggested, it would
then be easy for its application to be extended to
expressions like: Epid1609, quid est quod illi
caperrat frons '
1. Cambridge, MassHarvard University Press, 1965 =
2. S E E . , I, 156.
67
111. is tac - mhis word is very often used in a
derogatory sense: jCicero in his speeches often
refers to the defendant as iste. The word is of
uncertain etymology.I
112 n si sint - '(They would be ut oportet esse)
if they were ’ (ideal condition).
113 » ut agquom censes - indirect question, the
indicative mood being ante-classical and poetical.^
114 » male - see notes on bene, 1 =94»
116. 'V/hen is a woman most obviously of good
character.'
117= '(She is most obviously of good character) who,
when she has the chance of behaving badly, restrains
herself from doing so.' There are two relative
clauses in the Latin, but it is too clumsy to
translate them as such.
118. pensior - pensus.. from pendo, 'to weigh',
means 'weighed', so 'worthwhile', 'esteemed'.
'Which is the more esteemed estate; to have a maiden
or widow as wife?' A similar question is found in
Naevius's Gymnasticus (Play XIX, extract 1 in
Mueller's edition): age, utrumst melius: virginemne
an viduam uxorem ducere / See note and footnote,
1.365.
121 The acc. after vitare is more common in
Classical Latin
Lindsay attributes ut cottidie ... etc.
to Pamphila, as do Ritschl, Goetz, .... Zuretti an.d Grnouf
Ussing, however, attributes the reply to Panegyris,
which is better stagecraft Por, until now, the
questions asked by Antipho have been answered
alternately, now by Pamphila, now by Panegyris: on
the question of respectable women, Pamphila has one
answer (11 113-4), and Panegyris another (1.117):
1 u C.L Buck, op. cit., p.226.
2c Lewis & Short, ut, I À 3»
68
Pamphila answers the question of whether it is
better to marry maid or widow (11.119-20), and it
is fitting that the next question be directed in
turn to Panegyris: How is a woman to avoid vice?
This is answered in 11.121-2. Then Pamphila would
be the one to answer the next and last question
in lcl24fo This v/ould poise her to take the lead
in the next part of the scene, where Antipho's proposals
to dissolve the marriage have to be contended with,
(Ussing, however, attributes 11,129-31 to Panegyris.)
It is also apparent, especially from Act I, scene i,
that of the two sisters, Pamphila has the stronger
character (cf. 1.34 ffo).
124c quom res secundae sunt, se poterit gnoscere does
not let herself be carried away by her own good
fortune.
Cico Tusc o I, 22, 52, nosce te, hoc dicit,
nosce animum tuum.
Gnoscere is the old spelling. The origin of the
saying is obscure, the first record of it being the
inscription over the Temple of Apollo at Delphi,
YV(j01 crapmUv • Being thus an old and
revered saying, the words kept their old forms,
125. ’oo. and she who will endure patiently changes
for the worse,’
ilia - (never ill’). See notes, 1,159»
126, Seyffert suggests the reading ingenium ingeni
for Amph,8 9 9 the phrase does not occur elsewhere
and it is possible that here in the Stichus it is
just a piece of verbosity on the old man’s part.
On the other hand, it may have beèn a set phrase,
meaning ’your real inclination’ (cf. English ’heart
of hearts’: for other examples in Latin of the
1, Lodge, Lex,Plauto, ingenium, II 2,
69
dative gen. , of, Petronius 37, Trirnalchio habct
o..= numnorum nummos, i.e. he is very rich; Martial
VI,iv,1,- censor maxime principumque princeps;
Plaut. Capt. 825, regum rex. The Elative genitive
has its origins in the languages of the Orient.
0.gc OnPers. xsaya & iya xsaya(Piyanam.
127 « hoc is always scanned long by Plautus when
it is neut. nom. and acc. sing., except when the
of Brevis Brevians (as here) adlo.ws.
shortening. It was becoming short by Terence's
time 0^
quod .0. quodque - see notes, 1.107 =
128ff. Antipho now turns to his alternative plan
of action and tries them out with threats.
129= auctores - this word is rarely used absolutely.
In Plautus, it is usually follov/ed by ut and the
subjunctive, as above, 1.128.
132f. Antipho's question ends with alliteration,
and Pamphila's answer is also alliterative.
134= dTviMs - The form ditiae (etc.) is occasional
in Plautus and the regular form in Terence. (The MSS
know only divitiae etc..)"^. Por the dropping of
the intervocalic v, see notes, 1.37=
135 r magni ponditis - 'Bo you valuehighly?' cf.
notes on pendo. 1.118,
139fo The connection between the tv/o lines is:
dogs who do not want to go hunting will not only be
of no use, but will be detrimental to the hunt,
and a hindrance; and so is a wife to a husband she
does not want.
1. Lodge, Lex,Phut., ingenium, II 2.
2. Stolz-Leumann, II, i, p.55» _
3o Lindsay, E.L.V., p.119 : *hod-ce > hocc > hoc,
which is long by position, not by nature, cf. istuc,
1 =37 =
4= Lindsay, E.L.V., p ,142,
70
The plays of Now Comedy, especially those of
Menander, appear to have contained a great many
maxims, judging from the very large number which
have been preserved, and many attributed to Menander
(not all of them correctly). The plays of Plautus,
as well as those of Terence, are as rich in maxims as
their Greek originals appear to have been. Por
list, see Duckworth, N .R .C ., p .339 = In this play,
cf , 11.178,520. Ernoob tlniS
1400 viro (a), dative, is possibl^j: however, in
1,142, quo (see notes, 1.142) is used after the
verb dare : if A ’s is the true reading here, then
the reading at 1.142 should probably have been
quoi rather than quo.
141 » vostrarum - together v/ith the m a s c . vostrorum,
are forms found in Early Latin for vostrum.^
142. quo - adverb; see notes, 1.80 (alio). cf.
Winter’s Tale, V, i , 212f.:
’You have broken from his liking
Wliere you were tied in duty.’
Por the sentiment expressed, see notes, 1.52ff.
144 » credo - in parenthesis.
(nos) probiores arbitrabunt. N.B. active for
usual deponent form. Such forms are attested often
in Early Latin.2 cf. notes, 1.414=
vero (Nonius). Nonius, writing probably in the
fourth century A.D., when pzgrus rolls were hard
to consult, may well have been quoting from memory.
The other possibility is that vero is an early variant
from the Pompey-era recension (see p.30).
lo Lindsay, Lat.Lang., p.425=
2. Lindsay, Lat,Lang., p .521f
71
After 1.145; exit Antipho, presumably off R<
to forum, where he would be more likely to meet his
friends: if this is so, when he returns at 1.505,
from the harbour, he violates the re-entry rule,
whereby characters re-entered from the same place they
had loft the stage.^ A similar inconsistency occurs
at Amph. 854, where Amphitryo leaves to go to the
ship, but returns from the direction of the town
at 1.1009.2
146. auscultavimus (a ) - see notes, 1.68.^
— -- —--- — lorraS, Soch
149° celas sis - O.L subj. (/commonly called
future-perfect, but that this and similar forms had
nothing to do with the perfect is shown by such forms
as the infinitive, impetrassere, of.1.71)° It has the
optative suffix (see notes, 1-268). The origin of
the -8 8- is uncertain=5
150. eho - disyllabic. Unlike in nihil nil)
and ;^ne-homo ( nemo ), the h in such interjections
(of. .also ehei^ eheu) was probably inserted to
ensure a disyllabic pronunciation. Eho is never
used absolutely, but is always prefixed to interrogative,
sometimes imperative, sentences as a corroborative
particle.^ See also notes, 1.24-5°
152. N.B. Hiatus after heri/X Hiatus after emphatic
iambic words is common. However, Lindsay quotes this,^
1. Duckworth, N .R .C ., p.119°
2. M. Johnston, op Tcit., p
5. CcDo Buck, opo cit., p.281.
4. P. Richter, ’De Usu Particuj.arum Exclamativarum
apud Priscos Scriptores Latinos,' Studia in Priscos
Scriptores Lp.tinos , ed. W .8tudemund, volTTJ 389“542,
Berlin : Weidmann, 1875; p.440 ff.
5. E.LcV.. p.248f.
72
and five other examples where iambic words, carrying
no special emphasis, are followed by hiatus. The
other examples are: Cas .50, 58, Merc 257; Po_e_n^4-97,
875.
hoodie - probably never ho die in Plautus. 1
si quae .- . venerit - According to Benne tt,2
this is an example of a secondary function of s_i with
interrogative force, The development of such
a function can be seen in Trin 148, ausculto si quid
dieas, ’I am listening in case you should say
anything’, hence, 'whether you say’. Bennett finds
twenty -eight such s_i- clauses in the writings of
Plautus, Terence and Ennius. Handford, however,
sVod^s5 that in Early Latin, especially when,
the verb subjunctive, s_i ctoes riotAhe interrogative
sense which later developed:/Ke admits that in
four examples with the indicative, s_i must really
have interrogative force (Ter.Eun.858, A d .259?
Phor.555, Pleut. Pers.825).
154. There is some dispute as to what Crocotium does
after 1.154, when she is sent to look for Gelasimus.
Nixon has her stopping to chat with another slave
at Antipho’s doorway. It seems, however, that it
1. ibid., p ,202.
2° .8 .E.L., I, 551.
5 u S-A Hand ford, The Latin Sub junctive^, London:
Methuen, 1947, p .175 °
73
v/ould have been simpler to have an interlude after
1.154.1
Act I, Scene iii.
GelasiHius, the parasite, enters from the forum,
Ru His name is a comic formation from the
Greek y z K a i a i\ior , ’laughable’, and
Plautus is later able to play on this name at
11 177ff. and 650-1. Cf. the names of other Plautine
parasites, e.g. Peniculus (in the Menaechmi),
a Latin comic formation, meaning ’little brush’,
and, in the Cajotip'^û, Srgasilus, from the
Greek, iiior (lit, ’that can be worked ’,
used in reference to coutesans)There
are seven parasites altogether in the
extant plays of Plautus. Of these, four, (the four
who have very important roles in their particular
play) make their first entrance onto an empty
stage and address themselves to the audience :
Ergasilus, Capt.69 ; Peniculus, M e n ■77 ; Saturio,
Pers.55) and here, Gelasimus. Of the remaining
1. On interludes in Roman Comedy, see M, Johnston,
op.cit c , Ch VIIo There must have been such interludes.
At Pseud.575, Psoudolus makes direct reference to the
flautist who is going to keep the audience amused until
he comes out on stage again : and at Cure.4-62ff ., a
choragus speaks a monologue of -twenty-four lines to
occupy a necessary interval. We know that there was
a flautist present in the Stichus (he is dragged
forcibly into the festivities by Stichus and his
drinking companion, Sangarinus, at the end of the play),
so it is very likely that he would have entertained the
audience at this point (1.154)° This would allow
Crocotium to run off in the direction of the forum in
quest of Gelasimus without colliding with him as he
came onto the stage from the same direction.
74
three, two (Arotrogus in the Miles Gloriosus_, and
the unnamed parasite in the Asinaria) are relatively
unimportant: the third, Curculio, in the play of the
same name, is of course far from unimportant, but
the part he plays throughout is more like that
of a helpful slave. On entrance, especially,
he is typical of a servus currens, whose frantic
haste, violent threats, and slow progress are the
source of much fun in Plautine comedy.1
155fil Praenkel^ claims that this scene, as far
as 1.237, is a Plautine insertion, the only points
recalling the original being the fact that Gelasimus
makes his entrance with a monologue, and Crocotium
overhears all or part of it. Otherwise, Plautus has
largely expanded the scene. To have Crocotium
remain av/kv/ardly on stage for so long is, as
Praenkel says, most un-Attic.^ Also, Gelasimus's
monologue consists only of vague generalities:
it has no connection with the action of the play
and does not elaborate on the bad experiences
which have caused him to be so bitter about the
lot of the parasite . (I.183ff°)= This is not the
pattern which the monologues of other parasites in
Plautus’s plays follow. Cf. Ergasilus at Capt. 469ff
and then 1.478.
1. G.E. Duckworth, ’The Dramatic Function of the
Servus Currens in Roman Comedy;’ Class, Studies
presented to Ed. Capps on his 70th. Birthday, New
Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1 9 3 S , shows how
in Plautus the servus currens provides not only
’padding for the sake of comedy', but also suspense
2. op. cite, p.286ffo
3. It is difficult to believe, however, that any
playwright, Attic or dherwise, would allow such an
av/kward situation to arise. But cf. notes, 1.154°
iko P\oS aoric><^ ç\ec,ern — p|os COnS+ro^d Vu h
acx,. o4 e^)L\<^r\\ Lw . L^O ^2_ ^ Curry y(os
Qnn urry 4^issej".
75
1571% i.e. by carrying her for more than ten
years (1.160) in return for her having carried me
for ten months (1.159)° The wit is typical of any
parasite, whose next meal always depended on how much
he was able to amuse the prospective host.
157-8 - A: neque quisquam melius referet
matri gratiam 157
quam ego meae matri refero
invitissumus. 157a
P : quam ego matri meae refero
invitissumus 157a
ne»que rettulit quam ego refero
meae matri Pami 158
Lindsay considers^ that the Revival version probably
read 157, 158. The two traditions have been
confused in P by scribal error»
159° Either have hiatus at nm^/ilia (see p^22,
II,4g ), or read, as Lindsay suggests in his
apparatus (0.0.1.) illaec for ilia. Lindsay will
not accept Skutsch's suggestion^ to read nam ill(a)
me<[^d‘^ in alvo mens is gestavit decern, which involves
the dropping of the final -a from illa^. just as
-e is dropped from iülLe (cf. notes on indc, 1.67)°
162 o qjqo - 'and thereby'
lliîlü?. •“ acc. governed by cepisse^
____ laboris - part. gen. after minus.
165° To read, with the codd., oboriuntur, would
1. Ac E oP ., p .46.
2. P. Skutsch, Plautinisches und Romanislies, Leipzig
Teubner, 1892, p -1167 He quotes two further instances
which he claims to ba evidence for the scansion,
ifl(a). Pers .252, ill(a) militia i^ilitiatur mulj^o
m K ^ s quam pander0: Trin»809, lepidast ill(a) cads™ut
commémorai die ere . At Pers . 252, Lindsay jE.Jj.V .)
p.73) finds no objection^ to scanning illa militia.. ,
and at Trin.809 reads lepidli) illast.
76
demand the scansion dqlore’s . On such distortions
in pronunciation, see p. 20 (II, la, on arnica,
oticho_696 )o There is no evidence that the stem
“P," was shortened in the oblique cases of such
words as dolor in Plautus. On the nom. singe of such
words, see p. 20 (ll, 2 b). Lindsay’s emendation,
oboriunt, allows dolores its normal scansion.
167 : Any of the emendations proposed would make
the line possible metrically. Perhaps Zurett’s
suggestion, ego auditavh is preferable, because,
as he says, e_&2 would be more easily omitted than
atque, ita, etc.
168o An exaggeration, of course; the period of
gestation for elephants is in fact twenty to
twenty-two months,
167% dicier - pres. infin. pass This is a common
termination in Early Latin. See notes, 1.52.
174o An English reader may well expect the proper
name in apposition to nomen, rather than to mi_;
but in Latin idiom it agrees with the pronoun
(of. Capt.69 9 Men.77),
176. ind’ - see notes, 1.67%
178, See notes, 1.159f°
illa - i.e. paupertas.
ubi quern - i.e. si quern.
179% aimona - originally meaning the annual produce,
comes to mean the prices fetched by the annual
produce.
182% Lindsay reads siqui’ m^æsum vocat to avoid '
V ^ 1
what he considers the impossible scansion, siquis.
Quis (pronoun) and qui (adjective) are interchangable
in Early LatinPlautus appears to have used quis
1. But cf. hïcquidem, 1.464, sïguidem, 1.616.
2 Linds ay, E..L .VT, p. 172.
77
before a,vowel, quE before a consonant.^
183ff« 'It’s a great shame (pessume), but one thing
that men used to say - and a very good, fine thing
to say, too, to my mind - has disappeared»'
185° An early alternative for the imperative
fac was face (cf. also dice, duce). This form was
used when a word beginning v/ith a vowel followed »
The form without - e was used when the imperative
was closely joined with a following word beginning
with a consonant. The form in -£ disappeared in
o
later Latin,
186, promitte - 'promise (to come)', i.e. 'accept
187c lit. 'I shall not pardon-that you do not come',
V V
189 o■■ nihili - 'of no worth'. There is no trace of
the disyllable, nihil, in Plautus: it is always
reduced to the monosyllable, nil But nihilum is
trisyllabic,5
191. diffringe ('smash to pieces') is more violent
than defringo ('break up') which is the reading
of the 1188, The former, however, seems more in
keeping with the general tone of Gelasimus's speech.
Perhaps lambos diffrac tos refers to the practice
of breaking the legs of crucified prisoners who are
not already dead by dusk. Crucifixion was the common
form which capital punishment took for slaves.
lo Lindsay, Lat.Lang., p.444.
2o Lindsay, B ,L ,V ., p ,96.
5, Lewis & 8hort, amitto, I, 2 A,
4. Lindsay, op,cit., p»121 ^ __
5 V ibid,, The scansion should really be hihilum
(from ne + hilum - 'not a trifle'), but when the
accent fell on the nn, the penultimate became short
by the law of Brevis Brevians,
78
192. cenassit - see notes, 1.149.
195. haec verba - i.e. 1.190.
mod - (and ted), found in Early Latin as well
as me (acc.). The origin of the particle, -d, is
o b s c u r e Med is not merely the ante-vocalic form,
because ma is often found elided or follov/ed by
hiatus, even before a short vowel, It is possible
that the form with -d is the more emphatic, but this
cannot be proved.^
barbares - In most places in Plautus, barbarus
means Roman or Italian. (All Plautus's plays are
set in Greece.) Cf. Cant. 492ff., referring to
Roman court practices. However, at R u d .385, it is
applied to a Sicilian by the slave of an Athenian,
and at Bacc >119, es barbarus means 'you are an ignorant
barbarian*.^
195ff. Leo^ considers these lines (to 1.235) to
have been inserted by Plautus. He claims that the
motive for Plautus's insertion was found in the
original, at 1.171, but cf. notes, 1.155ff«
194. compendium - originally, a *saving (of money)*,
and then, in general, 'gain* or 'profit*, and
specifically, *saving of time*. Elsewhere in
Plautus, the phrase, facere compendium, means 'make
an end of* (Pseud.603, Rud.180), and if it were
taken in this way here, it would mean *disp-cnse
with*,^ i.e. *do without* (an auctioneer). Rolfe's
suggestion that the meaning here is *ply the trade
of an auctjoieer* is an attractive one.
1. Lindsay, L a t .Lang., p.423: Stolz-Leuaann, I, p .283
2, Lindsay, S.L.V., p.l59, 245*
3* Hallidie, to Capt.884.
4 5= Plautinische Forschungen zur Kritik und Geschichte
der Kor/ôdie, 2nd ed*, Berlin: Weidmann, 1912, p*lb9.«
5* This is Mixon's translation (Loeb ed*)*
79
195. ipso - has more point if the first interpretation
of 1 »194 is accepted. (It agrees, of course, with
praediceni..) If Rolfe’s interpretation appeals more,
then it might be considered a possibility to emend
ipse to ipsur.i and take it as the object of venditem.
196. arcessiturn - supine,
198. curiosus - ’applying oneself v/ith care ’ (from
cura), and so, ’applying oneself with too much
care', and so, 'interfering', 'meddlesome'.
199' 'who make a great effort (studio maxumo) to
mind other people’s business o'
201, si quand0 (A) - quite a frequent phrase, meaning
'if at any time'. P's reading, however, seems rather
superfluous: it is obvious that the subject of
sciunt will be the same as the subject of curmt
(1,199) and of sunt ( 1 . 1 9 8 ) Lindsay, however, chooses
to accept P's reading, with the form
202. adeunt Xpe'rquyfaat quTd /6Tet caif-sai. i]/lco ,
(cauæae, O.C.To, 1959). The genitive of the fern.
Jingo, first decl., v/as spelled -aj. in Plautus's day.
Before a word beginning with a vowel, it was
always a diphthong (-ai) (also sometimes before
words beginning with consonants, either for special
effects, or, usually, for the sake of the metre)
and, before a consonant, it was usually a monophthong
(-al)P
204, uxorin - Concerning the particle -n£, Lindsay
finds^ that Plautus preferred -n^ before vowels,
-n (with -e suppressed) before consonants
1 Lindsay, E.L.V., p,153f°: Stolz-Leumann, I, p .270.
2-. 'On the Sentence Question in Plautus and Terence,'
AJPh,, 1890, XL, p 16
1
80
divortio - abl» of cause It cannot be a
predicative dat as Early Latin does not show
examples of words used in apposition to a whole
statement such as appear in Tacitus, Ann. 1. 30,
quosdam ipsi manipuli, documentum fidei, tradidere
Roman women played a much larger part in
family life than did Greek women. Virtual freedom
came early to the Roman matron, thanks to a clause
in the Twelve Tables. Marriage was regarded more
often as a personal rather than a legal affair:
marriages were made by the paying over of a dowry
rather than by any legal ceremony. Divorce,
therefore, was easily come by, but nevertheless
infrequent,2
205f. i.e. though I don't mind seeing them worry
themselves over what the auction is to be in aid
0f 0oo
206. nil moror - 'I don't care in the least',
an expression which Ernout-Meillet (Diet.Etymol.)
explain as arising from the formula used by a consul
dismissing the senate: nil amplius vos moror, or
by a magistrate recalling a charge against
someone: C. Sempronium nil moror, Livy 4, 42, 8.
208a - ipse -P's reading, is unmetrical. The line
makes little sense as it stands. If it has a verb
of saying in place of the corrupt ipse (which was
possibly a gloss explaining egomet ?), then
perhaps it could be considered as belonging to the
Revival version:
loquar egomet quam ob rem auctionem praedicem.
lo Bennett, S.E.L., II, 314°
2o H.H. Scullard, A History of the Roman World from
733 to 146 B.C., 2nd ed., London: Methuen, 1951, p .
554f.
81
Lindsay thinks^ that the reason for the
insertion in A here of 11. 232-3 in place of
208a perhaps signifies the posâbility of shortening
the scene by omitting 208a-231° Another possibility,
he says, is simply that 232-3 were miscopied by an
earlier scribe who wrote them correctly at the top
of the next page and the next scribe copied them in
as part of the text. (This, however, presupposes that
a page in the original had no less than 25 lines
to. it, and this is six more than the number of lines
per page in A, and probably in the majuscule
archetype of ? (see p .32).
209fo NoBo alliteration of m.
210. mancupia - 0.L. spelling. See notes, 1.20
(lacruma).
211. potatio - 'a drinking session'.
213. potio - 'a drink'»
216. Hiatus at fame // emortuos:^ or else accept
Lindemann's suggestion, demortuos (cited in Lindsay's
apparatus, 0.0 AT).
fame - for abl. of third decl. in -e, see
notes, 1.71 (patre).
217. 'When he (Gelasimus) is hungry, no one is
as funny.'
aeque - comparison to be supplied from the
context. This is often the case in Plautus, cf. Bacc.
215; Men. 201, etc., and is found in other authors,
including Cicero (Pro .Cael.3)°^
220. Gelasimus addresses himself to the audience.
Such breaking of the dramatic illusion is a common
device in Plautus, (not nearly so common in Menander
or Terence), cf. ^^.713ff,, Men,879f,, 861f,.^
1. A.E.P.. p.55 ff.
2. See p.20 (II, 4 h).
3. Thes. Lingo Lat., aeque II B 3b.
4« TDuclcworth, 1A R .C ., p. 135 °
5. Diet. Class.Ant., 'Meals’.
82
221. logos - LoÿS.-forrnatvor^ (Acc.^>) Xo^Jv*. thO WOrd
occurs seven times altogether in Plautus, four
times in-the Stichus (383; 395, 455).
222 qui cena poscit (logos ridicules) ?
cena, prandio - ablatives of price: 'for the
price of a meal', The prandium was the midday meal,
and the cena began about 3 p.m., usually lasting
for several hours.^
223. There is no reason ro neglect P's reading,
Hercules te amabit, which is 'a most natural
2
parenthetical exc/lamation to a supposed bidder'.
r\ç*rcu\6^S of ç^ai\rv. Ber-^k's
interpre tation of A 's reading (hercle aestimavi)
does not have as good sense, and there is every
likelihood that here again, as at 11.68 and 146, A's
scribe h^^s mistakenly written -perfect for future.
Hercules - see notes, 1.43°
224. ehem - see notes, 1.150 (eho).
___ adnuistin r-'did you nodr' - the usual way
of bidding at an auction.
_____ moliores - i.e. |_Qg_os.
226. Ussing's explanation of this line is attractive
He explains iunctiones (A) as referring to the
Greek cruj-L'JiXoxaf ^ 'a combination of words', and
sudatorias as 'so difficult to unravel as to
occasion perspiration'. 'I have for sale riddles,4enough
to bring you out in a sweat; or others, weak
ones, good for drunken parties' (i.e. when everyone
will think they are hilarious anyway. This is a very
1. Pict oClEs c Ant., 'Meals’.
2. Lindsav, A.E.P., p.117°
3» Ho was also thought of as an enormous eater.
4. Nixon translates P's reading unctiones (accepte
by Lindsay, O.C.T.) as 'rub-downs'.
83
free translation of crapularfas, which simply
moans ’pertaining to intoxication’ ).
228f. adscntatiunculas, peieratiunculas - diminutives:
Plautus uses diminutives with much greater frequency
than Terence.^
230; It was the custom to bathe before dining.
Gelasimus had done neither for ages, so his strigil
was rusty and his oil-flask dry (lit. ’dark red’,
but this is the colour of dried out leather).
strigilim -___________________ The strigij.
was the instrument used in the bath to scrape oil
and dirt from the skin. The Romans used to rub
themselves down with oil after each bath, or
rather, had slaves do it for them . The strigil
was roughly h-shaped, the handle forming one side
and measuring an average five or six inches, the
other side being hollow and concave, in which the
dirt and grease collected.
rubidam - an early form, it has this scansion
here and at C as. 310, but in later literature, the
u is short.
233° It was the custom for one-tenth part of the
profit from any trade to be offered to Hercules.
Ussing, in his notes to Bacc. 661, quotes an
early inscription : decuma facta poloucta leibereis
lubentes donu danunt Herculei maxsume mereto (C I L,
531).
V VI
237. quis haec est - Shortening of •, syllables
long by nature in polysyllabic words is relatively
infrequent, but of monosyllables long by nature in
phrases of this type (quis haec dixitetc.), is
much more common.^
Lindsay considers,^ from A ’s version, that the
original reading may have been: adibo ad hominem.
quis haecst quae mihi advorsum venit ?, the reason
1. PuckA^orth, N.R. C V, p.335. 2. Lindsay, E.L. V .,p .45 °
3o Lindsay, A p. 65.
84for
re-writing this line being the unfamiliar
contraction haecst (of» Mcs_t, Poen.1333) ° In
this casé, mil:)h would be totally elided.
238. On the scansion of Epigrnnus ’s name, see
notes , 1 465.
241° ’That's precisely what it was, but I've worn
it out.’
242. Iiiccqtro^h± - MLxrcdmnwYo^ (from
i-LLxpdç 5 , 'small', and Tpwym j
'nibble') - 'Nibblebitz’.
243-4 - Lindsay here keeps the reading of both À
and P, eu ecastor, (eu = Greek s 6 , 'well', so
'well said', 'well done') which becomes an
extra metrum, i e . an extra-metrical exclamation
common in Greek tragedy and in Aristophanes, and
also appearing in Terence..^ See also, 1.259°
245- Ritsch:l's suggestion praedicabas pessumam
is a possibility, but the MSS reading makes good
sense o For deferred eho, of. Ter. 970
Syre, eho accede hue ad me. The more normal position
for eho is at the beginning of the sentence, but
the Thes. Ling. Lat. list five exceptions
(1^.825, Pp^cll28 % Stich.246, Ei^.639, ^M.970).
It is not an interjection expressing any emotion;
o
it is used simply to attract attention.^ See also,
notes, 1.150.
246. For an as a simple interrogative, see notes,
1°34°
248. ted - See notes, 1.193 (med).
maxumo opere - The phrase occurs in Plautus's
extant plays always with verbs of beseeching or
ordering, of. Cas »993 ? M ..G .75 ? .421, 752,
Pseud .897.
249V simT;^ - ante-classical form of si-MHï."
1. Lindsay, Introduction to the Captivi, London:
Methuen, 1900, III, 4° 2. Thes .Ling.Lat., eho.
85
250. Tneliercle - 53.1way s a trisyllable.^
251 ° fecera/b - 'had. sacrificed with how many lambs?’.
For this use of facio, of. Verg. Ec_l. 3, 77 =
253-4o A reads :
quid igi+ur me volt, mene ut ab sese petam
tritici modios decern rogare opinor te volt.
P reads :
quid igitur me volt? tritici modios decern
rogare, opinor, te volt, mene ut ab sese petam.
A ’ s version is jumbled, and P ’s second line is
unmetricalo There may well have been two versions
of lo254 originally:
F0E9,re opinor. mene ut ab sese petam?
quid rogare opinor te volt. ut ab sese petam?2
254° “ ^Gre means ’borrow’.
ff. - Gelasimus deliberately misconstrues :
’Wants me to borrow from her?’ Croc.: ‘No, wishes us
to borrow from you.’ G e l . ; ’Tell her I have nothing
to give which is either my own or borrowed - nothing,
save this cloak on my back; even my tongue .1 gave away
at a sale.’
255° immo u t - immo has pyrrhic scansion here ^
“0 The word appears to have had two possible
scansionspyrrhic or spondee (of. 1.362). The
etymology of the word remains obscure, but when
it is discovered, the reason for the double scansion
will perhaps .be apparent.5
1. Lindsay, E.L.V.,p.206
2. Lindsay, A.E.P.,p.55°
3o Lindsay, E^E_^V. ,p. 256f
^ ^ rnovj-V ^h ovaJ ^ S , CXr>^dL
af-Ve^'r- uY vi c_ov..i\cA KcuNe.
Orrvs-H-edl t>y TT)ia,^c\ke_ t ^ c : c \ o s e o f f ' p r ^ c j ^ c j i v t )
T W e . " 5 c c \ r \ c , ( c ) * r - \ U » o o ‘o l o ^ k f u V ^ ,
86
258. datariam - a comic formation (meaning 'for
giving away ’) ^Adjectives in -ariq- are normally
formed from nouns referring to things, e.g.
argentarius, ferrarius.^
259= See notes, 1 .245.
2"0. Understand G e l . : (nulla mihi lingua est)
quae dicat...etc.
2 6 1 n eccam = ecce earn, and is conversational.
& am is an a c c . of exclamation.
____ cedq •- an old imperative, consisting of the
particle ce-, ('here’), and the old imper. of dare,
-shortened to cedo through Brevis Brevians.^
The plural cette is from ce. + date »3
2 62 o Either A and P represent variant readings
for the first half of this line, or else a whole
line has been oitted through homoeoarchtoric4
Tibi di dent may also be a g l o s s .5
263= ituru’s - conversational, abbreviated form
of iturus e s .^
268. 'I wonder what the matter is
siet - siem, siFs , siet, simus,sitis, sient
are alternative forms found in Early Latin for sim,
etc., v/hich are also found. Siem, etc., are the
only survivals in Latin of the ye’/i optative
lo LoRc Palmer, The Latin Language, London: Faber,
1954, p.258.
2. Lindsay, Lat.Lang,, p.432.
3 e ibid o, p o284 =
4 o Where two successive lines have the same or
similar beginnings (homoeoarchton) one line is
easily omitted by mistake.
5. Lindsay, A .E »P ., p.66.
6. Lindsay, E.L.V., p.74.
87
mood sign of the I .-E. system. The regular form in
Latin was the generalised i (sim, velirn, edim).^
Terence uses siem, etc >, only where the metre
demands. It is almost invariably the form
found in old laws and Cicero says of it that it is the
full form, sit the diminished form, and both are
permissible -
269° nis i u t - Clauses introduced by these words
in Plautus always seem to have come after verbs like
nescio, etc., (i.e. ’not to know’, ’be in doubt’),
which are either expressed or understood, cf.
gas. 952, Most ..663, Pseud .1101, Trin 718 J
278. eccun- see notes, 1.261 (eccam),
271 ex nictura - a play on Pinacium’s name. See
notes, 1 274°
272o Like Ganymede, Pinacium is a cup-bearer Cf.
rotes on pueri delicati 1.274°
273 0 n^ - affirmative particle.
submerum - a hapax legomenon, meaning ’a little
less than (sub-) pure’. To the ancient Romans and
Greeks, it was bad manners to drink wine n e a t .4 in
happier times, 5 when Gelasimus used to be guest
at Epignomus’s house, Pinacium discreetly gavehim
virtually neat draughts.
NvB alliteration of s_.
1 c C B. Buck, op. cit., p.381.
2 c Lindsay, Lat .Lang., pol4f°
3° Bennett, S .E .L ., I 242.
4c cf. Martial I xi:
iam defecisset portantis calda ministres
si non potares, Sextiliane, merum.
5o Ergasilus, the parasite in the Captivi, had also
known happier times (Capt.109)°
88
Act II, 3c. m 1.
Servus currens scenes tend to be in iambic
octonarii, but some, as in the Curculio (SBOff.),
are in trochaic septenarii.
Pinacium» The name is from the Greek TifvaÇ ^
which is a picture painted on a wooden tablet (of.1,271,
and see also p.40). Mile Belcourt, in an article,
’Le Prix des Esohves dans la Comedie latine’,^
devotes a spécial section to the boy-slave (puer)
2
in PlautuSc The rjucgr is not the equivalent of the
'ixaTo of Greek Comedy, which can be a slave of any
age (cfc gardon - ’v/aiter ’). Puer is either simply
a page-boy, as at Asin. 382, 891, or a puer delicatus,
a favourite. Of this latter type there are three
examples in Plautus: Paegnium (from the Greek
Tcci(yv lev ’toy’) in the Persa, the unnamed puer
in the Pseudolus, and here, Pinacium, All three are
without doubt pueri delicati, and, were there any
doubt, as Mile Lelcourt points out, the situation
would have been made clear on the stage by gesture.
However, her conclusion that Pinacium is the favourite
of the parasite, Gelasimus, would seem a little
hastyJÛ6siie bases her assumption on 1,270 only.
Ic L ’Antiquité Classique, 1948, XVII, 123-32°
2c iMd. , pp.129-31.
3. She^sces also in Stalagmus, the wicked slave of
the Captivi, such a character. His insolent tone, she
saysT even when he is being threatened with harsh
punishment, belies his real nature. This being the case,
there can be found justice after all in the fooling
of Hegio, the innocent old man, because he trusted too
much in a favourite. Prom the Capt., also, can be
deduced the normal price given for a puer delicatus.
Hegio’s son was sold, under the name of Paegnium, a
typical name for a puer delicatus, for six minas to his
new owner, who changed his name to the respectable
TyndarusOtnless
Vne-r be sut Croc_o+v ury\.
89
274 0 It is unusual for aeque to be separated
from the word it qualifies.1
Praenkel claims^ that speeches and songs
beginning v/ith comparisons with mythological figures
and usually containing verbs of superiority (supero,
antideo, antecedo, etc.) are Plautine and have no
Greek background. But Prescott^ says they do, and
quotes passages from Meleager (Anth.P. v.148):
cpauf 3I0T' k v ]ri50o LÇ ràv e{?XaXov ^KXiooojpav
vLxdcrsLv aô-raq raq Xdtp iTaq ydp icriv.
and from Antipater (AnthAP. vii, 743); which contain
similar expressions with vixdv .
This comparison of himself with the god Mercury
by Pinacium, is typical of the flippant attitude which
Plautine characters often display towards the
s t a t c - g o d s I t is also very fitting that it comes
from the upstart Pinacium. His character recalls
very strongly his counterpart in the Persa, Paegnium.
278 , amoenitates , veneres , venus tates - All mean much
the same. Pinacium’s language is very verbose
(cfc 1.281, gloriam, laudcm, decus), lofty (1.279)
and pompous (1 .309' and see notes, 1.339)»
2 7 9 . ripisque superat - The a b l . with supero is
most unusual, but of. Verg. Aon.2 , 2 19, and 11, 514 °
1. Thes cLing.Lat., aeque III.
2 . op0cit 0, Chap.Ic
3° ’Criteria of Originality in Plautus,’ TAPhil, 1932,
LXIII, 103-25°
4 o H.M. Toliver, ’Plautus and the State-Gods of Rome /
CJ, 1952, XLVII, 49-57o Such an attitude is found in
all types of characters in Plautus. Downright
insolence towards the gods, however, comes only from
the lower, more despicable characters, such as pimps
and parasites. Plautus, if not encouraging, is at
least reflecting a general attitude of scepticism towards
the god s , prevalent in the Rome of his time.
90
280, propera - etc. Pinacium is here playing also
the part of a. servus currens, a role exploited by
Plautus as a very successful comic device. It does
not necessarily have to be played by a slave. In
the O^aptivi ; this is the part which the parasite
Ergasilus is playing when he comes running onto
the stage at 1.768ff%, and also Curculio, another
parasite, in the play of that name, 1.280ff» For
further notes on the servus currens, see p, 73,
Here, the audience would not only be anxious to hear
what exactly the news was, but would also be eagerly
anticipating the encounter between the puer and the
parasite, one of Plautus’s most purely comic
characters,
honesta - etc. ’Honour word with deed’,
2 8 2 c The second hemistich is obviously spurious
(cfo 1 ,303); although Lindsay (0.C .T .) does not
indicate this-- Ritschl suggests benefactis adiuta earn
tuis n
283 o adventum -■ acc. case after the verbal
substantive, exspectatiori^@ This use of the acc, is
found only in Early Latin, Apart from occurrences
in Plautus, it is found at Enn, Trag.199,
astrologum signa quid fit observationis! , and in an
early inscription, GIL, IX, 782, quis volet pro
ioudieatod n. L manum iniect Q 0 estocT?~~Plautus
uses the construction normally with verbal nouns in
-tie in interrogative sentences beginning with quid ;
e.g. Amph.319 ? Curq.-626 , True ,622 ,^
!• Bennett, 8 E»L ,, II 252.
2 . Lindsay, Synt APlt,, p°27° Exceptions :
.ant.519, Poen.410.
91
^8%. dlean - deliberative cub j. 'V.liy ever should I
K. I.• •
say that. 0.0’ Apart from being insolent, Pinacium
was no doubt lazy, and Gelasimus can hardly believe
his eyes when he sees him running.. However, no
sooner are the words out of the parasite’s mouth,
when Pinacium changes his mind and stops dead
(1.290).
289° ’Rod, basket, hook’. While Pinacium has been
waiting at the harbour, he has obviously been putting
his time to good use. Under the empire, the sportula
was specifically the small basket in which the
rich used to distribute food to their clients : later
it came simply to mean the dole paid to them.
290-3, 298-9 - Boutemy sees in these lines the language
of a general expecting a triumph.^ it was the
place of the senate to award a triumph to a
victorious general » Members of the senate met the
returning general outside the city (because, once
inside, his command expired), heard his case, and
granted or refused a triumph. This is to what
oratores mittero ad me (1.291) refers. Boutemy’s
suggestion, that there is reference here to a
particular triumph is, to say the least, questionable»
It may well be, however, that there is reference to
triumphs in general here. In Mommsen, we read
that in the last part of the third century B.C.,
it was quite a common occurrence for a victorious
lo A E. Boutémy, ’Quelques allusions historiques dans
le Stichus de Plaute,'REA, 1936, (p.29-34), p°31.
Elsewhere in the article, Boutémy endeavours to show
that the Stichus was revised around 186 B.C. (see
notes, 11.374, 433, 491, 606). He pinpoints a
particular triumph to which Pinacium is alluding either
that of Pulvius, conqueror of the Aetolians,
or of Vulso, conqueror of the Gallo-Greeks (both
in 187-6 B.C.).
92
general, however small the victory, to demand a
triumph, and, if this were refused by the senate,
to take it upon himself to hold one an]/way : the
first record of one such was in 231 5.0.
General opinion is, however, that in these
lines there is positively no local reference to
Roman triumphs (which would, of course, be a
Plautine addition), and that the main point is
Pinacium’s self-glorification. The latter assertion
is undeniably true, but for reasons given above,
the idea of reference to triumphs remains very
attractive » of, notes, 1 »291 =
291» donaque ex auro et cruadrigas - referring
to the crown of gold leaves (originally of bay leaves)
presented to the triumphant general, to other parts
of his apparel, and to the chariot, drawn by
four white horses, in which he rode.^ He wore a
purple tunic enbrddered v/ith golden palm-shoots,
a toga decorated with golden stars on a purple
ground, gilded shoes, and an ivory sceptre in his
left hand, with an eagle on the top.' No doubt
Pinacium used the harundo he v/a,s carrying to represent
the ivory sceptre.
293 ° portju expressing place whence, is used
without a proposition only once in Plautus, at
3^00c 289, where the preposition is contained in the
verb u
lo T Mommsen, The History of Rome, trans. by \l P.
Dickson, 5 vois», London: Macmillan, 1913, Vol.Ill,
p. 43»
2o Boutemy, q£c_c^ij;. , p. 31°
3 o .Dic t u Ola'ss Ant , ’Triumph.’
93
299 = itïijoertiam - ’make partaker in something’ - acc.
of person, abl. of thing, this construction being
relatively unusual: more common is acc » of thing, dat.
of person - ’share something with somebody’.
3000 There is no need to emend this line, as Ritschl
does, to an iambic octonarius, by reading decent
fastid^ia. et suporbiae . The abbreviated line allows
Pinacium time to pause, think, and change his mind.
302 » ’There’s nothing for it but to go back,’
303° The Romans were always very ancestor-conscious,
and the daily schedule included prayers to the Lares,
who seem to have been the spirits of departed ancestors^
me urn - meo_rum. Gen. p i . of the second decl.
was originally This is found in Early Latin
with regular shortening of o before m. The form is
frequent in Early Latin. It persists in the
conservative phraseology of religion and the law and
is retained usually in words for coins and measures.
(cfo lo587)o The usual ending, -orurn, was made on
the analogy of -.arum of the first decl.2
304 0 mode - The emendation bono (cited in 0.C .T .,
critical apparatus) provides an ablative of
instrumente Plautus, however, does use elsewhere
augeo with a direct object and no abl, of instrument,
meaning ’bless’ (Epid,192, Hon,351, Pseud,1128).
1, However, cf. H»J Rose, Ancient Roman Religion,
London: Hutchinson’s University Library, 1948, p »38ff.,
who regards them as powers of the earth,
2. Ü cDc Buck, op, cit,, p ,182 : Palmer, op.cit-, p ,243 °
94
303 ' Taltliubius was a messenger of Agamemnon in
the Iliade It is curious that his name recurs often
in later literature, while nothing further is heard of
his friend, Eurybates,
306fo meditor, from its original meaning, 'meditate
upon'9 comes to mean ’study’, and so, ’practise’.
'...and at the same time I shall be practising for
the Olympic track events.’ (He makes an unsuccessful
attempt to begin a race.) ’But the road (lit. the
space) has come to an end : it is too brif for
running: how it grieves me !’ Plautus is probably
playing on the common phrase, spatium breve, which
refers usually to the life-span (cf. Merc. 547?
Capt o 743)9 and the verb occido, which can mean
’perish’ (cf. common phrase in Plautus, occidi’).
Ussing misses the joke by emending occidit to
occurrit: ’This space, it occurs to me, is too
short for a r a c e .’ Occidit is well-attested in the
MSS, and occurrit does not occur anywhere in
Plautus in the sense Ussing gives it, in mentem
venit c
The Olympic Games were held at Olympia in
Greece 9 and open at first only to free men' of
Hellenic descent, but afterwards to Romans, who
were then not officially considered ’barbarians’
(cf. 1.193).
310. pulto - Loud, violent knocking on doors is
very common in Plautus (cf. Bacc. 531ff,, Capt. 832,
Most o 453 9 456).
311o Lit 0 ’I shall try the door, whether elbows or
feet are stronger (than it) ’ or, .A.cc.^s^'îlng Loman3
’I shall try the door, whether elbows and feet are
stronger (than it).’ For experior in a similar
construction, of. Amph. 508,
9:
3120 Ussing’s suggestion for the corrupt manum
is magnum anum, Anus v/as the iron ring locked
around the ankle of a fugitive slave when he was
recaptured. He jhad one on each foot, and the two
were joined by a rod or chain. In this passage,
however^ Pinacium would use anus referring to the
iron door-knockerj which would have the same shape.
Another possibility is to reads
niniis vellem hue fores erum fugissent, ea
caussa ut haberem nunc ianum.
The MSS read haberent manum. n was a common
abbreviation for nunc, so it is easy to see whence
A and P had manum ( nnani^), The haberent may
v/ell be an attraction from fugissent,
Hermann's malum magnum has not as much point as
the two preceding suggestions.
317o Gelasimus catches sight of the fishing tackle
Pinacium is carrying (cf. 1,289)«
318, ’How long since your last meal?’ Notice non
in the Latin, of, the French; pa fait combien de
temps depuis que vous n'avez pas mange? In English,
of course ; the negative is omitted ; and the French
also have another way of saying it whereby they omit
the negative : C ’est combien de temps depuis que vous
avez mang(^?
321, 'Serpents for you to eat,' Ritschl makes it an
interrogative, Trans, 'Are you frantic?' (The
hair of the Furies consisted of colubrae,)
96
Act II; Scene ii.
27o tuo arcessitu - The substantive arcessitus-y.
occurs very rarely in extant Latin literature, and
onJ.y in the abl. sing. It is found as well at Cic.
_____ ean gratia - 'Is it for that reason (i.i;, is
that wiiy
328, tuos; tui - used hero as substantives - 'those
belonging to you', 'Scold your own : they're the ones
at fault,'
_____ visebam - 'I was coming to see (wha.t you wanted
me for).'
329 o 'But then'^ (when I saw what was happening) I
took pity on these doors,' Pin.: 'And came to the
rescue (lit, help was brought)with all speed,'
Gelasimus, of course, did nothing of the sort.
Piiicicium is being sarcastic.
330. quisnam hie loquitur tarn prope nos? - Pinacium
has perhaps 9 to avoid a sharp clip on the ear from
Gelasimus after his piece of repartee in 11,324-3,
hidden himself behind one of the pillars supporting the
vestibule roof (if indeed the house-fronts on the
2
Poma]i stage \/ere equipped with vestibules), and this
\/Ou.ld account for Panegyric's not being able to see him
even aftvr he has spoken, for she has to ask, ubi is
est? It wou.ld also leave Gelasimus looking very
responsible for the recent fracas, Pennell thinks
that Pinacium may have hidden behind Gelasimus,
1, Lewis & Short, nam, Ii A
See notes, 1.348,2,
97
This would make-the situation even more farcical,
but then what is to be made of Pinacium's respice
ad me (1.331), if Panegyris is already looking in
their direction?
(Nixons ) 'Av/ay with that beggarly parasite 1'
Pinacium reappears from behind the pillar. His
language is very superior,
332, maiores mihi - See notes, 1,303»
333. cjuidni - can also be separated and written as
two words, as at M,G ,1120, quid ego ni ita censearn?
rogitern - The pres, subj , i s '• used in
questions in Latin to imply that the speaker
is indignant (of, Aul,829) or sometimes perplexed
or despairing (of. Ter. Ad, 780, ei mihi quid faciam)
334c The seventh foot is a tribrach, which is
permissible but rare. It occurs at 11,541? 544, 585,
630 and 709, and a Greek word is concerned in each
of these cases (but cf. 1,696, superior, 1.749,
V w V ^ \
miserror),
536ff, Pinacium’s protracted complaints of his
weariness recall those of Curculio (Cure, 309ff »)»
Curculio, however, was' hoping to get a free meal from
it (313ff0): Pinacium’s sole aim is to annoy,
337fo Note construction of adverb with verb 'to be',
cf, 11,350, 524, 690,
2
338, Havet would scan this line as follows :
1, Stolz-Leumann, II, i,p ,338,
2, L, Havet, 'Mis, tis honoris gratia, (causa),' BPh
1897, XXI, 67-8,
1
9
^ HoNMevcr,krr^out O i U ea.) ^+,11 iV »s «^'kcO-,. y^Ue OLuh,.'
98
proper# a/portu/tui//ho/ioris/caussfo) ecquid/
adpop/tas boryT,
He claims that tui is the personal (not possessive)
pronoun, the old form of which was tis, so that in
the original phrase, tis honoris causa, there was no
hiatus. The phrase means not 'for your own, personal
honour', but 'for the honour of you' (cf. 'for the
love of you').^
Lindsay doubts if the scansion, ecquid, should
be accepted, but he admits that there is more evidence
for it than, for instance, for siouid.^
339. Note Pinacium's pompous, rhetorical threading
of phrases : nimio in parti multo tanta plus quam sueras
cf o•notes, 1 o278,
Although in parti is marked as corrupt in the
O.C.Tc, Lindsay, in an article published in 1913? ^
8ays that in parti is wrongly suspected by editors,
Havet has proved that tanto, in phrases like bis tanto
pluris, multo tanto amplius, is wrongly printed for
tanta , which was used by Plautus (and Cicero). Since
then, it has been popular to explain tanta as standing
for tanta pecunia; but this line, Stich. 339, shows
that it really stood for in parti tanta (= tanto).
lo Havet cites the five other instances in Plautus
where the phrase mei or tui honoris occurs : Aul. 4 3,
Cure. 549? M .G . 620, Poen. 638, Asin. 191. In all
cases except the last, the personal pronoun is scanned
as a monosyllable (long): at Asin. 191? tui is scanned
as an iambus, but here, it is coupled not only with
honoris but also with aetatis.
2. EoLcYo, p. 172.
3. 'Notes on Plautus,' CQ^ VII, Iff. (p.5).
99
340. perbibo , ’to drink the last drop', 'drain out’,
and so (here only) 'to suck out (the marrow from
my bones)'.
medullam - This noun is usually plural, but
appears only in its sing, form in Plautus's works.
Meaning lit. 'marrow' (of the bones), it comes to
mean the seat of life and strength, which can be
affected by fatigue (as here and also at Catull. 58,
30), by hunger (as in 1.341) and by disease.^
341. P's reading, ■çul misero, is preferable to A's,
because, as Lindsay points out (0.C .T .), the
alliterative effect is spoiled in A's version.^
342. virum - Panegyris is referring to her husband,
but Pinacium deliberately misconstrues and replies,
'Oh yes, a great many', taking virum in the sense
'man' .
345o Gelasimus is about to issue some violent threat,
but Pinacium cuts him very short with another - far
worse - that he might get no dinner.
inritassis - see notes, 1. 149.
347. ecferte ...etc. - addressed to slaves within.
'Extras’ with silent roles appear again at 1. 683 (q.v.),
^ scopas, harundinem - The v/ord scopae originally
means 'twigs', and so, a broom made of twigs.
1. Thes. Ling. Lat., medulla, II A.
2. (Not P's - a misprint here in the 1956 ed. of the
O.C.T.) Many scribes in the Middle Ages seem to have
been well-acquainbd with the Latin metres. Probably
such- a tran^osition as we have here was a result of
the scribe's memorizing a hemistich or whole line at
a time and not referring to his original for each word
/y
100
In this sense it is used here, and also at Petr.
34,3 and Horace^Sat. 2,4,81. In the latter two
instances, it is used to sweep up food scraps,
and so was probably a short-handled broom, whereas
the harundo, which was used above, 1.289? to mean
’fisliing-rod '5 probably had a long handle, to
facilitate sweeping down cobwebs from a height.
348. 'That I might bring to nought all the spiders’
work, condemn their weaving, and bring dovm all their
webs.’ This passage and Asin.423 ? are used as
evidence that -louses on the Roman stage were provided
with a vestibulum.^
349. postea - According to Prof. R.G .Tanner (Newcastle,
N.S.W.), this should probably be regarded as representing
post ea (re), on the analogy of tribus post
diebus (etc.), post being an adverb.
330. ’Do you think they have only one set of clothes,
2*
like you?’ According to Pollux, the parasite (in
Greek New Comedy) always wore black or grey, except
in the Sicyonian of Menander, where the parasite
wears white for his wedding. Whether the tradition
was carried over into Roman comedy is not known. (See
p.176 .)
itidemne esse - For construction of adverb with
verb ’to be’, cf.11.337-8, 524.
351. 'Take this broom.’ ’Certainly.’ 'I'll sweep
this (part), you sweep that.' ’I'll have it done (in no
time.) (Lit. I shall have done it)'.
1. M. Johnston, op. cit.
2. 4 ?119 ; quoted byJ .Ivl.Edmonds , op.cit., Vol. 3B,
p.728f.
101
3521. ’This fellow has taken upon himself (sine
suffragio nopuli) the office of an aedile' (because
he is ordering everyone else around).
333c age tu ocius - ’Get a move on, you I’
354c pinge - 'paint, adorn'. This is probably corrupt,
though it may refer to the custom of whitewashing
houses, h e r e , the porch in front of the house.
Zuretti 's suggestion is attractive s nige^, jiumum
consperge .... , 'Get a move on, lazybones, wash down
the ground in front of the house I ' Another possibility
would be : merge, humum consperge ante aedis. Notice
the alliteration, perge .... consperge, taken up
later in the line with f a c i a m , factum oportuit. In
rustic capitals, the letter E was very narrow, and
easily confused with l o So possibly, perge became
pirge, from whicli it was an easy step to pinge.
356. 'Good heavens, quite a business, this I '
357 c Lindsay accepts Bothe's suggestion, inserting si_
before sunt . W he r e, l.owever, nisi si occurs in
Plautus, the two v/ords are inseparable. Lewis & Short
do quote an instance in Cicero (Cat.2,4,6) where the
two words are separated, but even there only by vero.
It seems unlikely that Plautus would have allowed the
three words, forte hospites venturi, to come between
them. Weise's suggestion, inserting vos before lectos
sternite,seems much more likely, as Pinacium now
turns from Gelasimus to the slaves and orders them to
102
lay the couches.
lectos sternite - 'prepare the couches' (by
arranging the cushions for the reclining diners).
Roman men always reclined at dinner ; respectable
Roman women sat; but of. 1.750. Lectos sternere
was a common phrase - so com ion that there are two
nouns formed from it, lectisterniator , which Plautus
uses at Pseud.162.and lectisternium, which was a
feast to the gods, held in the street, where the
couches were strewn with images of the gods in
w’lose honour the feast was being held.^
35oc 'Couches I That's a good start I ' Gelasimus is
still thinking of his stomach. For the construction,
cf. Jimph.801, and compare the construction at
Stich.6710
35Sff. 'Some of you chop v/ood, others clean the fish
the fisherman brought, and get down the ham and
pork.'
359. piscator - i.e. Pinacium (1.289).
360, Rams were kept hanging from hooks : cf. Cart.908,
ot quae pendent indemnatae pernae, is auxilium ut
feraiiic Pork seems to have been a very popular food of.
Capt.903ff° 9 Cure.323? 366, Pseud. 166.
glandium - is a choice, delicate part of the
meat, and is used most often with reference to
pork.
362. relictas habeo - The perf. part, is predicative
here (see notes, 1.566).
immo - a spondee here, cf. notes, 1.255.
1. H.J.Rose, op. cit., p.98.
103
364. luci - locative case. It appears in Plautus
with or without cum and is sometimes modified by
2
the adjective claro or rrimo.^ Locative and ablative
cases are very closely connectf.c! in Latin
363 0 This line may v i e i l be a parody of some well-known
tragedy. Sedgwick says that in Plautus, apart from
any general parody of tragic diction, there is 'a
certain amount of parody of particular passages of
Roman tragedy which it would be unreasonable to suppose
Plautus took over from his Greek originals. It is
unlikely that there was much of this : it would be to
expect too much literary interest in the audience'.
At dramatic festivals in Rome, the public saw tragedies
as v i e i l as comedies, performed.
commodum - adv., ’just then'.
radiossus sese sol superabat - This can only mean
(lit o), 'The sun, with its beams, was mounting over
IS rcxtheT o d d .
"lo TcPchane, Case rorms v/ith and withouf^FTBpwHTfTons
used by Plautus and Terence to Express Time, Baltimores
P.Green, 1893, p.54.
2. Lindsay, Lat. Lang.,p.390 °
3. V/oBo Sedgwick, Parody in Plautus ,' OQ, 1927,XXI,
88fe Many passages in Plautus have been cited as
possible tragic parodies : however,Sedgwick's statement
should always be kept in mind, that the public's ability
to identify such passages should not be overestimated.
For four passages, hov/ever, he has produced possible
sources from the fragmentary remains of early Latin
tragedy : Pseud.7Q2ff.,cf.Enn.Ann.0 Tite, tute Tati, tibi
tanta tyranne tulisti (this admittedly not being from a
tragedy, but either the work was well enough known
itself, or else a similar passage could conceivably
have occurred in one of Ennius's tragedies): Bacc.932f.,
cf0Enn.Trag.81, 0 pater, 0 patria, 0 priami domus...eta:
Pseud .772, cf.Pacuvius, Antippr aerumnis cor luctificabile
fulta: Pseud.834, similar expressions found in Naevius,
Neptuni pecudes , and Pacuvius , ITeieL repandirostrum
incurvicervicurn pecus. Cf. also notes, 1.118.
" -2_____________________________________________________
104
Ussing's suggestion
alone, to read ecce in place of sese (A, sesse: P ’s
reading esse, of course, is impossible), is unlikely
to be the right solution. Hov/ever, ecce does lend
force to the dramatic nature of the line, and is
easily corruptible, palaeographically, into esse.
Maybe the original reading was :
commo/lum radios suo^ e c c e j f s o l sup^abaty'ex ma^i,
(lit.) ’Just then, lo, the su'n was mounting over its
o\/n beams from the sea’. As the beams of the sun are
seen before the sun itself at sunrise, this makes more
sense than ’the sun mounting over itself’. The
adjective, radiossus, if it were the correct reading
here, would be a hapax legomenon, according to
lewis & Short, Palaeographically, it is possible
that radiossuosecce became corrupted into radiossusseæe
366fc ’V/hile I talked with the customs men (and
asked) what ship had come from Asia, and they told me
none, I caught sight,...’
On the corruptible nature of portitores, see
Asin.241f.:
portitorum sirnillumae sunt ianuae lenoniae :
si adfers, turn patent, si non est quod des* aedes
non patent.
367o negant venisse - In Oratio Obliqua, when the
language is colloquial, the accusative subject of the
infinitive is frequently omitted in Early Latin,
especially in greetings, e.g. Enid.7.^
369. vento secunda - ’v/ith favourable wind'.
velo passo - ’with sail spread’, and so, ’full
sail’, Pinacium is painting a very dramatic picture
1. Stolz-Leumann, II, i ,p .362.
105
370. quoiast - < guoia est. Cuius, -a, -um (older
form quoius etc.), is an old interrog.-relative
adjective, very frequent in Plautus and Terence,
but found also in later authors.^
371- The audience has been waiting 97 lines for this
news. Ergasilus, in the Captivi, manages to keep them
guessing for 105 lines (Capt. 768-873), Curculio for
47 (Cure-280-327).
372. et vitam meam - because Epignomus is a likely
source of food.
373 « tutin - < tute + ne.
374 - Hiatus after argenti. Pinacium would no doubt
have paused for effect, to alert his audience.
_ _ Boutémy^ sees in this and the following lines
allusions to the riches and luxuries brought back
from Asia by Vulso’s army. (For a description of
these, see Livy XXXIX, 6.) According to him, the
assumption that the allusion is to the return of
Vulso’s army is strengthened by the fact that Pinacium
inquires after an 'Asiatic barque’ (1.366f.),
Boutemy’s theory seems, however, to be based on
evidence which is too slight. The East was always
associated with luxuries of all descriptions, and it
is very unlikely that there is reference to any
specific incident here.
376. purpura was literally the purpura murex, a
shellfish, from which the Romans extracted a costly
purple dye. Because the dye was so expensive,
purple was always the sign of the rich, the upper
1. Lindsay, Lat.Lang., p.443.
2. op. cit. See "notes , 1. 290f f .
106
classes, the aristocracy.
377. lectos - which can mean 'couches’, possibly here
refers to beds. See notes, 1.378.
378. Babylonica - at Lucretius, IV, 1029, these are
clearly 'bed-clothes', which, in the light of 1.377?
lectos , may well be the meaning h e r e .
_ _ _ peristroma - ’covering for a couch’.
The second ^ is deferred. Tonsilia qualifies
tappetia. These tonsilia tappetia are mentioned again
at Pseud.147.
380. poste - Like nempe, it always loses its final -e
preconsonantally. There are abundant traces of this
fuller form in the MSS of Plautus and Terence, but the
word never seems to make a trochee, except at Ter.
And.483 (v/here the reading is doubtful) and Most.290.^
Poste is an Early Latin form of post. The original
*posti had its final -i changed to -e (a common change
p
in Latin), and eventually the final -e was lost
altogether.
381. sambucas - According to Lewis & Short, this always
refers to a musical instrument. But it is far more
natural that it be taken as a female player of a
sambuca here : also at Spart .HaHjr. 26 , 4? In convivio
tragoedias comoedia.s Atellanas, sambucas lectores
poetas pro re semper exhibuit.
1. Lindsay, E.L.V., p.211.
2. C.B. Buck, op. cit., p.80.
107
eugepae - This expresses either joy (as here and
at Rud.170, 442) of indignation (Amph.1018, Merc.626):
at Capt.274, 823 and Pseud. 743? the tone is ironical.
The last syllable is never elided, and the word comes
only at the beginning or end of a line. It is not
found in Terence or any other Latin dramatists.
Neither this expression nor eugae is ever used by
women, but this may be purely coincidence, in view of
the small number of occurrences. The exclamation in
Greek is eSye xaira? . It is uncertain why
the 3CCC- of the Greek jiaxaT is dropped in the Latin
1
form of the exclamation.
383. multigenerum - ’Greek retained the power to create
compound words which it used freely in poetry,
especially as ornamental epithets. Latin, however,
2
had largely lost this inherited facility.’ The early
v/riters, who drew so heavily from Greek sources, were
thus faced with a problem: whether to attempt a similar
formation in Latin, or to substitute a different word.
’Andronicus himself, when at a loss, is content with
the most make-shift substitutes : thus i (ôoopf)
simply appears as celeris (hasta), which imitates the
sound, v/hile not rendering the meaning. But later
poets, recognizing that the ornamental compound is an
essential feature of the epic style, v/ere driven to a
procedure which was alien to the genius of their
language. Andronicus ’ quinquertio for Ti^vvaBXoc
1. P. Richter, op. cit., pp.523, 526ff.
2. i.e. from I.-E.
108
was still-born, but the most tasteless audacity was
shown by the tragic poetsc Nothiig in epic can rival
Pacuvius’ notorious Nerei repandirostrum incurvicervicurn
pecus (cfo dyxoXoyE CXpg îiupTauyriv ).’^
Plautus is fond of multi- compounds, some of
which appear not to have been too distasteful to the
Roman ear, as they appear in later literature
(including Cicero).
384 ’I ’ve come into a fortune’ (lit. ’inheritance has
come to me’)o
optigTt - see notes, p.20 (II 2a).
3850 Nixon translates, ’Those spiteful auction-chasers
can go chase themselves to Hades’, in an attempt to
reproduce the effect of the double per- prefix.
malivoli - cf. 1.208.
386. ’Hercules, I ’m glad to say (gratulor) that the
tithe I promised to you has grown.’ cf.1.233 ^
387 L spes est + infin. - There is a similar construction
at Pers.725f° with occasio est
388. a monosyllable.^
advexit parasites - very bad news for Gelasimus,
of course; but Gelasimus is not the only one whom
Pinacium gives a nasty shock.
1. See footnote, 1.365-
2. Palmer, op.cit., p.l02f.
3. Lindsay, Synt.Pit., p.74
4 0 Lindsay, E.L.V., p.198.
109
For after 1«380, when she hears of the fidicinas,
tibicinas and sambucas of eximia forma, there is not
a v/ord out of Panegyris until 1.390.
391. immo - see notes, 1.255.
ille - Epignomus.
394. cf.1.385.
395. qui deus sis - This falls into the class of clause
described by Eennett^as ’descriptive clause with an
accessory notion of opposition ('though’)’. Of.
Poen.234 ? True.587.
discessisti - Cicero, and others, use this word
of deserting soldiers (Phil.5 ? 34). But of. also notes,
1.544 for Ussing’s explanation of praesens.
396. iubeo (also volo, cf. 1.422) with the acc. and
2
infin. is a very common construction in Early Latin.
397c vin ( < visne) administrem ?- ’Bo you want some
help ? ’ '
Volo (and nolo) are followed by the subjunctive very
frequently in Early Latins the construction is found
in the works of Plautus, Terence, Turpilius and
Afranius in Early Latin.
398. futtile - Of vessels, ’freely pouring’, cf. fundo ,
then of persons given to too much talking, ’indiscreet’,
and more generally, ’vain’, ’feckless', ’useless’.^
399. ille - Epignomus s hie - Pinacium.
400. Gelasimus is going off to learn some new and
better jokes, in a desperate effort to displace the new
parasites (illos homines) that Pinacium says Epignomus
has brought v/ith him.
1. SoE.L., I 294.
2. i^id., 1.380,
3. "ibid. , I 212ff..
4. Terence, Andria, ed.G.P. Shipp,MelbournesOxford
University Press,I960s notes, 1,609.
no
Act III, Scene i .
Enter Epignomus and his slave Stichus from the
harbour} L. Epignomus is probably wearing a hat,
2
which usually signified a traveller.
403. In ancient times, £i sea-voyage was always a
dangerous and hazardous undertaking, and it v/as
customary for the voyager to offer prayers of thanksgiving
and sometimes sacrifices on a safe return.
Tempestatibus - weather goddesses. The first
record of these divinities dates from the mid-third
3
century B.C. when Lucius Cornelius Scipio is recorded
as having dedicated a temple to the Tempestates which
had spared his fleet.
404. Mercuric - Mercury has been referred to above
(1.274) in his capacity as messenger of the gods. Here
Epignomus addresses him as the god of traders.^ His
name comes from merx ('merchandise'), for which the
word mercimonium is an alternative in ante-classical
and post-Augustan Latin.
406. adfeci aegrimonia - 'afflicted with grief.
Adficio can also be used in a good sense, e.g. with
laetitia.
1. Pennell thinks that this first meeting between
Epignomus and his wife is now over and that Epignomus
enters here not from the direction of the harbour but
from within his own house. If this were so, it would
be very confusing for the audience, for whenever action
occurs off-stage, it is always mentioned, so that everything
is quite clear to the audience. See 1.449ffo,
Stichus'8 careful explanation of how he is going to do
the shopping, and cf. notes, 1.673ff.
2. W. Beare, 'Slave Costume in New Comedy, ' C_Q, 1949,
XLIII, 30f.
3o Inscrr.Scip.in Inscr.Orell., 552.
4. It is interesting to note that Mercury was also the
god of thieves.
Ill
408f. Note the balance of conveni / reveni: after
reveni we would expect something like a portu; instead,
it is turned into a metaphor.
408. adfinem - either 'neighbour' or ’relation'. Here
it means both. Although Antipho at 1.145 presumably
made his exit to the forum, R., he has managed to reach
the harbour and meet his son-in-law there.
410. cf.Asin.636, videtin viginti minae quid pollent
quidve possunt.
411. quoniam - < quom+iam. Here, as always in Latin
after Plautus, it is causal (or on the borderline
between causal and temporal). When it is temporal,
the tense of the verb is always present (or perfect of
completed action). At True.402, there is a pleonastic
addition of iam.^
412. diyitias - See notes, 1.134. Scan here either as
a trisyllable or quadrisyllable. Perhaps the trisyllabic
scansion is preferable because thus word-accent
and verse-ictus will coincide, ditias (see p .19 ).
413. sine advocatis - An advocatus was someone who
acted as a v/itness for one party. Here, sine advocatis
means, broadly, ’without formalities'.
ibidem - properly, an adverb of place, and Plautus
uses it only seven times (out of a total of 34) as an
adverb of time. As it could be either here, translate
’then and there’.
1. Lindsay, Synt.Pit., p.135
112
stega - ’deck', appears only twice in extant Latin
literature, both times in Plautus (also at Bacc.278).
It was the covered part of the ship where sailors could
shelter from the weather (synonyms : constratum, Petr.100,
tecta, Caes., B.C. I, 56).
414. convortimus - Elsewhere in Plautus, this verb (in
the sense of ’return’, as here) is construed as a
deponent. Arbitro(r) is another verb which is sometimes
active, sometimes deponent in Plautus (cf.1.144).
415. ap<id me - unemphatic mje. cf. 1.663. apud vos,
apud nos, less commonly v/ith emphatic pronoun.
4l6f. It was the custom, because of the dangers of seatravel
(see notes, 1.403), always to keep land in
sight as far as possible, and to come to harbour each
night. Epignomus says that it was from the previous
night’s harbour that his brother Pamphilippus had set
out later than himself that morning.
418. abduce - See notes, 1.185 (face).
418ff. - See p. 15f.
419. hasce - i.e. fidicinas et tibicinas (cf.1.380).
420. mulcaverim - Leo, in his edition of Plautus, cites
a similar figure from Placidus (Corp.gl. 5,85#119)
muleantem aerumnas, and adds, viri fortes potius
muleant miserias quam ab eis se mulcari patiantur. In
an earlier aricle , he had produced instances of
9&ÊÈ9.(or derivatives) used in similar figures, e.g.
Most.65 saginam caedite, ^ u c . 741-2, meane ut inimici
mei bona istic caedunt, Lucilius 900, tineae omnia
1. Lindsay, E.L.V., p.40 *
2. ’Lectiones PÏautinae,’ Hermes, 1883, XVIII, 558-587
(p.567).
113
caedunt, 634^viginti ^domi an triginta an centum
cibicidas alas, where the verb signifies 'beat, make
an end of by devouring'. Leo adds that whoever has seen
animals or birds of prey hungrily devouring food can
understand hov/ apt it is to apply the word caedere
in auch instances. In the line at present under discussion,
there is no secondary notion of 'devouring'^ Translate,
'I know you know how many troubles I've beaten with
you. '
The main objection to Fennell's suggestion, mussaverim,
is that the well-attested reading, mulcaverim, can be
explained quite reasonably, as has been shown.
422. volo me capere - See notes, 1.396.
eleutheria - neut. pi. of the adjective (Greek
eXeoOen Loq~) ° It occurs again at Pers.29, where it is used
with some degree of adverbial force (cf.stulta facere =
stulte facere).
423. et ius et aequom postulas - 'What you ask is
right and proper.' lus is something morally binding.
aequom is something fair.
425' cadum vetcris vini - vintage wine, a treat for a
slave Probably Stichus's usual drink was boiled must, the
drink of the common people and slaves. It was very cheap
and made by pouring water over the remains of the pressed
grapes. A cadus was a large earthen (sometimes stone or
even metal) vessel used for containing liquids. Wine was
sometimes kept in goatskins in Greece, but these appear
to have been used in Italy only when wine was transported.^
propino - can mean 'drink the health o f (as at 1.708, and
lo Diet.Class 0Ant., 'Wine'.
114
metaphorically, 1.468), and also, as here, 'offer
to someone to drink' (as at 1.712). That the first
\r\ U . u : V i r v
syllable of propino is long/is borne out by this
line and Ter. Eun.1087°^ Cf. notes on promittere
1.483.
papae - A Greek expression ( Tiaxat )»
it is found both in Plautus and Terence. It is an
exclamation of surprise (Epid.54, Pud.1320)
or joy (as here, and Bacc.207, True.507)^ , and in
Greek also of anguish or bodily suffering.
426. duco is the usual word for a man taking a wife :
here it is used with reference to a mistress (ctmicam).
vel decern - 'Take ten if you like (vel),
provided that you are footing the bill (dumde tuo
1.e. sumptu - cf. Men.149, M.G .905 etc.),'
432. eo condixi in symbolam etc.- for the construction,
cfo notes, 1.447. Stichus has engaged himself to go
to Sangarinus's to a dinner in which he himself
will be a contributing party.
__ e£ - 'thither '.
_ symbolam - from the Greek crov [BoX-rj , lit. a
'throwing together'. Of. colloquial English, 'throw
in for something'.
433c Sangarinum Syrum - The name, Sangarinus,^ is
from Asia Minor, and is represented sometimes with,
sometimes without the nasal infix. ( Zdyapcc ,
a city on the Hellespont; Zdyaplç ^ a river
in Scythia, and Zdyyapig or Zayydp Log
in Bithynia; Zdyyapog , a city in Bithynia)A^
lo Lindsay, E.L.V., p .151*
2. Richter, op. cit., p.613.
3 c 'coming from Sagara' - of. Tied lvoc , 'coming from
the plain, of the plain'.
4c Ko Schmidt, 'Griechische Personennamen bei Plautus,'
Hermes, ].902, XXXVII, 2041»
115
■Boutémy^ remarks that the river Sangarips or
Sangarus was connected with Vulso's campaign against
the Gallo-Greeks (see notes, 1.290ff.), a fact which,
he adds, was probably not known at Rome until he had
made his report in order to be awarded a triumph.
But he appears to be stretching the point a great
deal when he endeavours to use this as further evidence
that the Stichus was rewritten for a performance c a .
,186 B.C.
434. oademst amica etc. - for shared mistress,
cfo Ter.Ad.86fo
435 - See notes, 1.418ff.
436. Stichus speaks of his day-off as if it were a
slave n Cf =lc453o
438o eadem - i.e. eadem opera : una, simul. It is
constructed in Plautus always with the future or with
forms which have the force of the future, and where
it appears, the construction is always asyndetic
(except at Poen.617 where, however, Lindsay has
bracketed the preceding atque).^
occupatum - supine (acc.) of purpose, which is
usually employed after simple £0 ('go'), or parts
thereof, but here after transibo.
439. ad Sangarinum - i.e. apud S . Cf. Plautus's use
of ad forum sometimes, where apud forum would be the
normal phrase.
442. This line is very poorly preserved in A, while
P has omitted it, together with 11.441, 443-5,
altogether. Keeping in mind what has been said in the
line immediately preceding (iam hie aderit cum
1 . op w cit., p .33 o
2. Thes.Ling.Lat., idem (caput primum) I 3d,
(caput lilterum) 7 d2.
116
domino suo ), I woul'd suggest:
servos homo qui ni suo cum ero ad cenam meat,
advorsitores pol cum verberibus decet
dari, uti eum verberabundi abducant domo.
(abducant domu A)
It was the custom for a slave to accompany his master
to a banquet to light his way, and to call for him to
escort him home after the banquet to protect him from
any harm that might befall him after the evening’s
festivities. ' •
\ "]
447 o ad cenam condicere - Lindsay says*^ that the
phrase promittere ad aliquem (cf. Stich.483,513)
is not an example of the use of ad 4- acc. as an
equivalent of the dative, which belongs to Vulgar
Latin. It is a variation of promittere ad cenam
(stich. 596, Men. 794) which is coined on the type
of vocare ad cenam. Similarly, we find condicere
ad aliquem (Stich.433) like condicere ad cenam
(Stich.433, 447).
446ff. We can be sure that whatever the Greek original
of the Stichus was, thRse three lines did not appear
in it. They are certainly Plautine inventions.
449ff » IT.Bo Stichus ’s careful explanation of the
route he is going to take to do his shopping. See
notes, p. log o Plautus wanted to avoid bringing him
back onto the stage before the banquet is all
prepared. If Stichus were to exit now to the forum,
by the rule of re-entry (see p. 71 ), he would be
SyntoPit., p.83f
117
expected to return the same way home from his shopping
expedition, _
451c eadem - This is the only instance in the extint
plays of Plautus where this word refers to place
only. Perhaps this is due to the influence of the
preceding ea which does occur in Plautus as an
adverb of place,^
452. commeatus continet - The sense of the verb
continet here can be seen more clearly in the
participle continens, 'uninterrupted'. Trans tinet
would perhaps be more satisfactory here (cf. M.G.468)
but it is difficult to see how it would have been
corrupted to continet, unless on account of the
influence of the com- of commeatus. (For the
trans-/per combination, of. Pers.445f° eadem istaec
facito mulier ad me transeat per hortumo)
453» lacero diem - See notes, 1.436.
Act III, Scene ii.
454c libres inspexi - cf. 1.400.
455. regem - i.e. patronum. Cf. Capt.92, Men.902,
Asin.919 o This usage of the word rex is not exclusively
Plautine.
sr
458. hicquidem - 'The true explanation of hicquidem
seems to be that the particle -ce was dispensed with
(as in illequidem, istequidem). The word should be
n
printed hi(c)quidem. On the particle -ce, see notes,
1.18.
1. eadem occurs in Plautus at: Bacc.49,521; Capt.293»459;
Men.428 ; Merc.802,1007 ; Pers.445 ; M.G.303; Poen.6l7,719%
Pseud.333; Rudr 329 ; Stich.438,451; Trin.581, in all of
which the element of time is not excluded.
2. Lindsay, E , p. 73»
118
459. Hiatus before and after hodie. There seems to
be every good reason not to emend here to avoid hiatus.
There is a succession of hiatuses in the following
lines r For Lindsay’s explanation of these, see p.21,
Another possibility is that they are due to the fact
that Gelasimus is accompanying his weasel and mouse
story with appropriate gestures. In 1 461, he may
well have stopped to scratch his head before uttering
the Roman hieratic term, opscaevavit..
Omens from birds were very important in Greek
thought, but the developed science of augury was
Roman. It may well be that these lines were a Plautine
addi tion.
461c strena^ - The origin of this word is probably
Sabine, and connected with strenuos. In Latin after
Plautus’s time, strena is a gift given at the New Year,
ominis boni gratia (Pestus, p.313)» A passage from
Symmachus throws some light on what it may have been
originally : exortu paene urbis Martiae strenarum
usus adolevit, auctoritate Tatii regis, qui verbenas
felicis arboris ex luco Strenuae anni novi auspices
accepit. Strenae therefore seem likely to have been
twigs or branches used by the Romans in much the same
3
way as they used lots. The word strena appears with the
meaning ’omen’ only in Plautus and Pomponius.,
1 VNote based on H.A. Keseberg, Quaestiones Plautinae
et Terentianae ad religionem spectantes, Leipzig:
Gres sner & Schramm, 1884, and A.Ernout, Le^s Eléments
dialectaux du Vocabulaire latin, Paris: SocTTtT~de
Linguistique de Paris, 1909»
2o Symm. Ejo. , X 23, quoted by Keseberg, op. cit., p .12.
3 0 sortes, small wooden tablets arranged on a length of
string; when thrown to the ground, auspices were taken
from the way they fell, as to whether the omens were
good or bade We should also compare the practice of the
ancient Germans in using twigs of a fruitful tree for
divination. Tac.Ger. X, virgam frugiierae arbori
decisam in surculos amputant eosque notis quibusdam
discretes super candidam vestem temere ac fortuito
8pargunt, ______________________
119
opscaevavit -- The Latin scaevus is cognate
with the Greek a>taLdg , meaning ’left 5 on the
left'. The Romans appear to have used it only in
reference to an omen. For the Roman, anything which
hapj^ened ’on the left ’ was of good omen, while, for the
Greeks, this boded ill. The noun scaeva alone means
simply ’omen’, and must be qualified by bona before
it has the connotation ’good’ (cf. Pseud .1138,
Stich.672)0^ It follows, then, that opscaevare
need not have any more specialised meaning than ’give
or bring an omen’. Pennell, in his note on this line
(Stich,461), points out that at Asin.266, opscaevavit
is not necessarily of bad omen. He translates:
’offers a presage that my trickery will play me false’.
And for g tich,461, he offers ’When the omen was granted
me (this is what I saw)’.He reverses the order
of 11.460 f ., but this is hardly necessary, as hoc
can refer just as easily to what has gone before
as to what comes after.
463- Ussing accepts A ’s reading an and takes
augurium ac facit as a second comparative clause after
item. This interpretation is suspect for two reasons :
nowhere else in Plautus does the construction item ...
ac appear, the most usual construction being item ...
u t : bo have two comparative clauses qualifying words
which appear in one and the same clause is a clumsy
construction, not enhanced by the deferment of an
to the second word in its own clause.
Augurium hac facit - ’It (the weasel) makes (the
substance of) an augury hereby (i.e. by doing this)’.
1. Keseberg, op.cit., p.lOf.
120
465 c Scan either Epignorn^ //ut ego (with hiatus
after an interjection - see p. 22 , II 4f - the
address may well havebeen followed by some gesture
which normally accompanies a hearty greeting) or
V \L \J u V __
Epignom(e) ut ego.Epignomus is thescansion of the
name throughout the play, but in greeting, as is the
case here, the accent may very well have fallen on a
different syllable from the usual.
466c praesillunt (P)- influenced by the preceding
prae: i and 1 are commonly confused,
4670 usque - here has the sense continenter. It is used
by Plautus as an adverb of place, time (as here), and
degree. It is rarely found alone, as here. This
appears to have been a poetic usage. It is usually
followed by a preposition, e.g. ad.
sustentatumst sedulo - This is Pamphillippus 's
reply to Gelasimus when he greets him in the same
way at 1.586, this first attempt, to win the favour
of Epignomus, having failed utterly.
__ sedulo - originally se (i.e. sine) dolo,
’without deceit’, and so, ’diligently, assiduously’.^
468. propino - See notes, 1.425_
_ _ plenis faucibus - Technically, fauces was that
part of the throat between the back of the tongue and
the opening of the windpipe. The nearest English
equivalent would be ’gullet’; but the phrase does
not seem to have been coarse. It is found again, in
Plautus, at Cure.126 .
1. Ernout-Meillet, dolus, sine (se = sine is archaic);
and Lindsay, Lat.Lang., p .565 -
121
470-1, Most editors assume that a whole line has
been omitted here, that cenem illi apud te is the
beginning of the line numbered 15 in A, and that
quoniam salvos advents belongs to what must have been
line 16 (line 16 does not appear in A, the line after
15 being numbered 17)» There are two reasons why this
line (l.470-1) need not be suspect:firstly, A ’s
scribe has been far from accurate with the numbering
of the lines on this page in the palimpsest; the page
contains 11.466-485 ; the last line he has numbered on
the page is 1.485 which, however, is mistakenly
placed before 1.483? and is the third from the bottom;
this he numbers 29; yet he continues on the following
page to number 1.486 as 30, neglecting altogether 11.
483-4 : secondly, the point of the line has been
missed by most editors ; Leo seems to have the correct
interpretation. ’Gelasimus ad *’di dent quae velis”
accommodât sermonem, "cenem apud te”,^ sed addita
sollemni invitandi formula /T.e. ’’quoniam salvos
advents", cf. M o s t . 1 1 2 8 f q u a s i vocet ad cenam,
respondet Epignomus quasi invitetur ab illo. sic
decertant usque ad 482, turn plane loquitur.’
475. quando usus veniot - opus cannot always be given
as an exact equivalent of usus (but cf. Lodge, Lex.Plaut
usus B)c See notes, 1.571 Tronslate ’when it is
convenient’ (lit.’when there comes a use for
it’).
4770 nescioquid in mundo - i.e. his jokes. In mundo
means ’ready’ and is used by Plautus with habere and
esse. Ennius is the only other author' in whose
works the phrase appears. The adjective mundus
1. cfo Mosto1007, where Simo invites himself to
dinner.
122
originally meant '’clean*, and so ’well looked after,
cared for, elegant’. It is found once, in Ennius,
Ann.146, with the extended meaning of ’equipped’:
Ostia muni ta est: idem loca navibus pulcris/munda
facitc^
2
478o in hunc diem - with the acc. to express
extent of time is used by Plautus in the following
phrases :
i ) in diem, meaning ’for the time being, for a
while’ (also Ter. Phor .781, Eun.1020): it has the
same meaning in Cic. Ph^. 2, 34, 87, de Orat.2, 40,169ii)
in eum diem, found only once in Plautus, Cas.565
iii) in unum diem,found only once in Plautus,
Pseud o534 ° (in is omitted in O.C T.)
iv) in hunc diem, occurring six times in Plautus.
It is distinguished from the plain acc, of the
extent of time in that it always refers to something
in the future (except in in diem in Plautus, but not
in Terence or Cicero), cf, Men,959 ° V/hen the
demonstratives, eum and hunc, are the only modifiers
of diem, the preposition in. is regularly used"; when
diem is modified as well by an adjective, is omitted,
479° possicm - See notes, 1.268.
1. Ernout-Meillet, mundus.
2, Note from T.E Kane, op.cit., p.25ff°
3- There is one exception, M.G.77, for which Kane
proposes the emendation, Regi operam in hunc diem
mihi decretumst dare.
123
. See ]p. :52).
483. quando guidera - Note the unusual scansion.
This and Stich. 559 are the only instances in Plautus
where the second syllable is not short.^
proraittere - In some compounds, the prefix
pro- can be either long or short in Plautus (e.g.
Stich.200 procurent, Cure.519,525 pr^- ): but
promitto always has pro- as does precede (see 1.484)Cf.
notes on propino, 1.425°
487° alieni novem - nine guests (that is, including
himself). For a Roman dinner, there were three
triclinia (couches seating three people each - from
the Greek TpLxXCvLov ), arranged around three
sides of the table, the fourth side being the side
p
from which the slaves did the serving.
489- Leo suggests the emendation, sois tu Laconem
esse unisubselli virum, and refers back to Capt.471,
nil morantur iam Lacones unisubselli viros: ’Spartan’
because they were famous for their powers of
endurance,
unisubselli virum - ’You know I ’m a one-chair
man,’ The well-to-do had couches on which to
recline at dinner. The poor parasite has only one
wooden chair for himself. , ‘
lo Lindsay, E.L.V., p.213*
2. J, Carcopino, Daily Life in Ancient Rome, London:
Routledge, 1941, p-2^51
124
491. Ambracia - a Greek city in Epirus.^
492. sumraatcs - Antp- and post-classical, it is to
be identified with a small group of words in -as,
-atis denoting rank or origin (cf. optimas,
’aristocrat’, cuias, ’of what country?’, Arpinas,
’of Arpinum’).2
493- infumatis infumus - The couch of honour
(lectus medius) was that opposite the empty side
of the table, and the most honourable position on
it the place at the right-hand end: next in honour
came the couch on the left of the central . one
(lectus summus), and then that on the right
(lectus imus). The most important positionon
each of these two was that on the left.^ So
Gelasimus would have put his chair at the right-hand
end of the lectus imus.
495° procedit - in the sense prospéré evenit.^
At 1.484, it is equivalent to profeci.
lo Boutemy, op.cit., says that as Plautus has already
sung the praises of Pulvius in the Amphitryo, 186 B.C.,
it is natural that he introduce into an old play an
allusion to the successes of his patron, who had
captured Ambracia in 189 B.C. after a stubborn seige.
Livy mentions that a deputation was sent to Rome in
187 B.C., and a treaty drawn up between Rome and
Ambracia > As has been said (see notes, l<.290ffo, 433),
it is highly unlikely that the play was rewritten,
or even that these ’allusions’ were added by Plautus
and impossible to prove that all the alleged allusions
which Boutémy mentions were not in fact present in the
Greek original.
2. C.Do Buck, op.cit., p.332.
3 o Carcopino, op cit., p.265-
4° Lodge, Lex.Plaut., precede II B2.
125
496. de reliquiis De originally means ’down from’,
but even in Plautus’s time, the sense is already
far less specialised.^ In the Stichus alone,
it is possible to see that the word has many
different applications: cf. 11.4,10,286,555,358,
400,426,496.
Exit Epignomus into his house, probably for
the first time since his return. See p.-. 16
497' periei ... plane, nihil obnoxie - ’I ’m well
and truly done fori ’ Aulus Gellius, in a discussion
of the meaning of the word obnoxi us, mentions this
line of the Stichus and says of it, composuit...
Plautus tamquam duo inter se contraria ’plane’ et
’obnoxie’. Salmasius’s comment on the word obnoxie
here is obnoxie perire dicitur, qui non plane nec
funditus perit, sed aliquam spem salutis habet.
Obnoxi u s , often used in legal language, means
’liable to punishment from’, so ’subject to’, so here,
’I ’m done for clearly, subject to no conditions’,
i.e. There are no two ways about it.
periei - The old spelling, with £i for q,^
is preserved in A here. M in the palimpsest seems
usually to have indicated _i, but at Cas. 92 and
Merc o526, q.^
498. i.e. ’exstincto Gelasimo, vivorum numerus uno
minor est factus’ (Ussing).
dudum - Originally ’a certain length of time
ago’, it came to be used normally as ’a long time ago•
However, in Plautus, it can refer also to the time
just past (as here and at 1.676, while at 1.672,
lo Lindsay, Synt.Plt., p.86
2. Lindsay, Lat.Lang., p.9°
5 - ibid o, p 0245 °
126
the time referred to is a little further rehoved.
501. quaen - <"quae + ne. The interrog. particle
is repeated in the following line, auspicavih.
ear se - ea insa. In the MSS of Plautus, the
first part of ^is-pse is sometimes found declined,
e.g. eumpse, Pers.605 ; eampse, Poen.272; eapse,
Cas .604 ; eopse , Bac_c .815 ; cf. reapse [re eapse ),
True.813 a
deciens - ’numerus rotundus pro quolibat maiore
numéro’. It is used in this way mainly by the poets
Cfo also at Amph.577, Aul.70, Cist.248, M .G .854 -
502. ea - ablative (Leo, ea - ex ea). The reading
of pO^, cam, which Ritschl accepts, could only
mean ’(take auspices) for it’ (cf. Pest, p.242,
matrimonii perpetuitatem auspicari), which is
olhviously unsuitable here. Lindsay auggests that
the reading may in the first place have been ean.
For the abl. after auspice(r) meaning ‘by means of’,
cf. Cic. de Div. II, 77, itaque nec amnis transeunt
auspicate nec tripudio auspicantur.
in re capitali mea - ’in a matter concerning my
life, wherein my life is at stake.’ Capitalis
is from caput, ’head’, and, by metonymy, ’life’.
Act IV, Scene i.
Enter Antipho and Pamphilippus from harbour, L.
Cfo notes, 1.145c
lo Lindsay, Lat.Lang., p.441,
2. Thes o Ling ALat., deciens 2
127
Leo is probably correct in considering^ the
delayed arrival of one brother a Plautine invention.
It provides an opportunity for two rather than one
amusing scene with the parasite.
505e Unless the second bene is omitted (as by
Ritschl), either the final syllable of measque
nust bear the ictus or it must drop the final -_e
completely. V/hen Lindsay discusses the dropping of
2
short -e_, no examples are given of the particle
-que (except in the words atque and neque), and we
must suppose that no evidence has been found to
support the dropping of the final -e in this particle.
Lindsay does say, however, that a phonetician would
require the following explanation for the dropping
of a final - e : that the word which drops -e shall
be closely joined to, ’jammed up against’, the
following word. Measque mihi seems to satisfy this
stipulation.
servassint - See notes, 1.149.
506. volup - neuter of the adjective ^volup-is:
cf. simul from similis, and G.L. facul from facilis.
508. satis accipio - a legal, technical term, meaning
’to take sufficient security (out a ^ n s t )’.
aps te ~ In Plautus, ab appears to have been used
before vowels and consonantal q, q and r ; a before
b , 2, m, f, V, £, £, £ (labial and guttural sounds);
abs (aps) and a before tu, tuus etc.; ab and a before
t, d , 1, and n,^
508-10. nisi ... ni - usually interchangeable except
i) in wagers, where only ni is found, and
lo Plautinische Porschungen, p.385fo
2. E.L.V.,'p.71f0
3 c ÏÏînTsay, Lat.Lang., p .577 -
>Tr>qqts pojt- fv e rc x A ----- T K i S l r \ 4 o “tK e “V \|p ^
o 4 S e n ie v o c e cA\scvJSSed k y S . A . H a n d fo ric t^ . I *^0
\A/V\€rev>n 4\No Se'ç^Q.t'ûi'Vç, iciecxs a r e e jc ^ m s s e -J •.
p o v je r* t o c X a S o m e t h v v ^ , t k e - VcxeV^ o f w v U 4 o d o \"V^
P e r S . Z % S jPuvi o c c a s v o ^ S\ V /e U e t ( j i v \ p \ y \r\c^ h e
d v d n o t v \i\s t \^ Ir L P r ^ \ i s U ^ a o c f o t k c r - I a n ^
“H n ^ a p o d ô S ^ s P c x s ex c o r r e l a t i o n a l 0 \r cl S u t ^ vj n c c t i v e
vntroocA ^ W >perec^-S L -c x t^ n f r e m u e n t l'y e n n p l o y s a n
\ n d l v c a t i v e ^ \ n d i Cxxt vnc^ t h a t tK e _ p cv M ev ^ eNLNSps o r
W0.5 e>cisVed.
128
ii) v/hen used in th& sense of sed (an Early
Latin usage, e,g, Epid.265), where only nisi is found^
513- ad ilium - See notes, 11.439? 447-
514. ’It is not merely by words that I desire to
gain your good will now.’ (Nixon). The implication
of the words, rendered in English by the addition
of the word ‘merely’, would be made clear in the
Latin by the manner in which the words were spoken.
The verse ictus coincides with the word accent in
verbis.
desidero - first found with the probative infin.
%
in Cicero.
615. perendie - per- has the sense ‘beyond’: it is
connected with the Oscan perum, ‘v^ithout’ (of the
phrase perum dolom mallom, of which sine dolo malo
is the nearest equivalent in Latin^ and means literally
’on the beyond day’ More remotely, it is connected
with the Greek n é p a ^ T i é p a v .^ Cf. notes 1.585
(peregre),
518o uti - Since the unfamiliar uti would be apt to
be replaced by the familiar ]ot, Lindsay’s practice
is to substitute u^i for ut where the metre demands
it, but never to sacrifice any uti which
1. Lindsay, Synt.Pit., p.103.
2-1:--Gildersleeve & -Lodge ,— 254~'n. 3 .
3. ibid^ , 4^2!3, ;2 ii.2.
4c. Lindsay, Lat .Lang., p. 561.
5. T.E Kane, op.cit., p.41°
129
the MSS have preserved (cf, Stich.444)° Uti
is closer to the'oldest form uti (Enn. Ann,178,
360), and has its final syllable shortened
through Brevis Brevians. The form qt is a further
stage of the shortening (cf. calfacio).^
519- commers - Mers is a later form of the archaic
form merx, which, however, is the more common throughout
Latin literature.
520, See notes, 1.139fThe
omission in P of the words perinde.°.
item Lindsay considers due to scribal error
caused by homoeoteleuton- Probably the scribe glimpsed
the word res in 1.521 and confused it with res
in 1.520. A more obvious instance of such an error
can be found at Rud.470-1, where the word hercle
2
occurs at exactly the same position in each line.
/
_ _ _ perinde - See notes, 1.100.
522, itidem - 'in the same way', is particularly
common in the language of the comedians, which echoes
the language of conversation.3
523- Enter Epignomus from his own house. See p ,15 r
iam redeo - ’I ’ll be back soon’. Present for future,
mostly restricted to verbs of motion, but cf. 1.531.
524- si tibi etc. - ’If you fall foul of nothing
to upset you’ (Nixon).
For use of adverb with the verb ’to be’, cf.
11.337f., 350.
1. Lindsay, E.L.V., p.220.
2. Lindsay, Lat.Tex.Emend., p.49
3- Ernout-Meillet, itidem.
130
526' exilem - (etymology obscure) - ’poorly, thin’
and so ’empty’ (of the quality of something), as
at Cic. Att,59 15, 1, cu:g exercitum nos ter amicus
habeat tantum, mo nomen habere duarum legionum
qillium. The genitive which follows, aegritudinum,
is similar to genitives after verbs like implore,
egere etc. Plautus also uses the ablative to
express plenty and want, cf. onustus with abl. at
Stich. 276, but with gen. at Aul.611, 617.^
527 - incedit - Epignomus is spared a trip to the
harbour, as his brother is already here. Epignomus
has only just now seen the two men, as they probably
stopped to talk on the opposite side of the stage
from his house (see p.qifj.
529. Thele are two main problems in this line.
Firstly, postilla - should it belong to the end of
Pamphilippus's speech or to the beginning of
Epignomus’s r Secondly, should the first word be
hue (MSS and most editors) or hau (Guietus)i
For usages of postilla, see notes, 1.86.
In all cases where it occurs at the beginning of a
clause (as it would do here if given to Epignomus),
it means a very definite ’and then', 'after that'
(Cas.119, Men.342, Most.141, Pseud.298).Its
position as first word in the clause gives it more
emphasis. Would it have much point if given undue
emphasis here? 'And after that, he has already
forgiven you?' It seems not, One sense in which the
word postea is found and which is rather more remote
from the senses noted above, 1.86, has almost the
force of 'in that case’. The North of England
1. Thes cLingcLat., exilis II A a,b
2o Blomquist, op.cit., p.20.
131
has the same colloquial use of the word, 'then'.
It is used only in questions. Cf. Most.346, quid
ego istoe faciam postea? , ’What shall I do with
him the:'"' and Poen. 1262, quis me amplectetur
pos tea ’Who's going to hug me then? ' These seem
to be the only two instances where postea is used
in this way in Plautus's surviving plays. It will
be noted, hov/ever, that in each case, pos tea is the
last word in the sentence As the function of postilla
appears to have been identical with that of postea,
we have good reason to expect that postilla too
could have had this colloquial usage which postea seems
to have had, though there is no sure example.
By the same token, however, as we have no evidence
to the contrary, we must expect that if this was
the case, and if postilla could likewise be used
in the sense of ’then?’, it likewise, when used
in the same sense, would have come at the end of
a sentence as well. So that, in order to render
'He's already reconciled with you, then?’, it would
seem that postilla should have come at the end,
after tibi, and not, as it must do if allotted to
Epignomus at all, at the beginning of his speech.
Though it is unwise to desert the authority of
the MSS where the two traditions, A and P, agree,
hau longissume postilla, 'not very long after (you)’,
seems the obvious reply for Pamphilippus to make.
There could not, after all, have been a very long
interval between the arrival of the two brothers. If
there had, one would expect some explanation of it
from Pamphilippus, which is not forthcoming.
132
531; exQne ramus -- See notes, 1.523 (redeo ).
532. vicissatim ~ an archaic form of vicissim.
533 - quam mox coctasiT cena - Here the pres,
auxiliary est replaces the fut auxiliary erit.
534 decs salutatum - On a safe return from a
journey, it was the custom to offer prayers to the
gods. Cfo Amph. 9675 Bacc.347 -
536. When Pamphila last left the stage, she went
into her own house (1,147) She must have crossed
into Epignomus’s house through the garden gate
mentioned at 1.449f- Of. notes p. 42.
537° morai -• old gen. See notes, 1 202.
538. apologum agere - Apologus is a Greek loan-word,
and means ’story'. As Ussing points out, it is
rather strange that the verb agere, generally
used of acting on the stage (cf. didascalia, 1.3),
has been used here with apologum, where perhaps
Mueller’s suggestion facere would be more apt.
But in all probability, Antipho dramatised his story,
and in that case, agere would be quite a suitable
vorb. Also, it is the verb used in the phrase
nugas agere, and the nugator at Trin.936 is
described, like Antipho at 1.570, as graphicus,
and his audience, like Antipho’s (1.541), is anxious
to know about the story, quo evasurust (Trin.938).
539° quasi - Plautus does not restrict this
conjunction to imaginary comparison, as is seen
in this passage and also at Aul.592.^
541° N.B. tribrach in seventh foot. See notes, 1.334
542. Goetz emends here to fidicinae et tibicinae,
but in 1.551, where Antipho recounts that he is
Ic Lindsay, Synt.Plt., p.207 °
133
offered more than two dancing-girls, he is simply
making it a better story than it began. Goetz also
emends to quoins erant tibicinae, 1.543 =
543, caeleps - English 'celibate’ - Its derivation is
uncertain, but it may be connected with Sanskrit
kevalah (’a l o n e ' I n Plautus it simply means
’unmarried’, whether ’single ’ (G_as .290, Merc .1048),
or ’widower’ (as hero)»
544. praesens - Lodge gives the synonym aptus,
Porcellini potens, efficax, vehemens, praestans,
praesentaneus, and says of it ’quia quod praesens est,
magis valet quam quod abcst’. Ussing’s comment
on the word here is ’ut deus prasez.c dicitur, cuius
vis in re praesenti apparet ’. (See notes, 1.395,
discessisti.) Whatever the true explanation of its
meaning here, the fact remains that there is a
difference in meaning between the participle praesens
and the verb from which it comes. Ernout-Meillet
explains that this difference is due to the fact
that sum had no participle and that the form praesens
was not connected with praesum. In the sense, ’to have
power over’ is probably the closest praesum comes in
meaning to its particple. Cf. Cic. ii, 37,
non enim paruit ille Ti. Gracchi temeritati, sed
praefuit : nec se comitem illius furoris, sed ducem
praebuit.
N.B. tribrach in seventh foot. See above, 1.541.
550. imrno always comes first, except at Aul.765,
Capt.354, Rud.1232. Lodge, following Sprecht, says
1. Ernout-Meillet, caeleps
134
of immo: ’ad corrigendum aliquid (vel sententiam
sententiae opponendum) usurpatur non solum ab altero
colloquentium^ut alterius dicta corrigat sed etiam
ab aliquo loquente ut sua ipsius verba mutet vel
corrigat. Cum autom corrigendi vim habeat, haec
vox et nogat et confirmât, idque sub specie
negationis.' This last is the function immo
tiEis li()i7e. ji-t Stich. lL/17, 255, 6:2]_,
one speaker is correcting the other. There are no
examples in the Stichus where immo is used by the
speaker correcting himself, but cf. Pseud.542.
553. sane - an affirmative particle, often joined
with an imperative in colloquial language. Originally
it meant ’sanely’ or ’sensibly’, and was used in
this sense with sapere to intensify the meaning of
the verb, and afterwards, with other verbs, adjectives
and adverbs, simply with intensive force, its
specialised meaning having faded.1
554. equidem - Lindsay says this word is undoubtedly
associated with the first person.^ It is
possibly a combination of ego and quidem. Lodge
quotes it as occurring 176 times with the first
person, and 26 times with the second and third.
contruncent - The simple form of this verb is
not found in use until Imperial times.^ For the
meaning ’devour’, cf. notes 1.420 on caedere
with the same sense.
1. Ernout-Meillet, sanus.
2. Synt.Plt., p.97.
3. Ernout-Meillet, trunco
135
555o videlicet - has the same formation as
ilicet (ire, licere) and scilicet (scire, licere),
and, like scilicet-, is often ironical- It is
sometimes followed by an infinitive in Early Latin,
as here, as if it was videre licet, but the
paratactic construction is the more frequent.^
The scansion is videlice t throughout Plautus.^
556c ille - i.e. the son: illi - the old man. The
ambiguity of the words would have been made clear
on the stage by gesture.
557. videlicet - once again followed by an
infinitive, though fuisse seems to have the; position
of main verb in the sentence, videlicet serving almost
as an introductory particle. This type of ’non-question’
with non and the verb coming together at the
beginning of the sentence, seems to be exclamatory.
Cf. 1.606, Merc. 732, etc.^ See also notes, 1.717°
____ ilico - in its original sense, ’at that place’,
is found only in Early Latin (Naev. BelU-oen.VI, 44)=
Plautus uses it both in reference to time and place,
but after him it is used only in reference to time.
Notice that it is followed, as often in Plautus,
by ubi, which itself refers primarily to place.
55Of* - hardly logical, but as Ussing says, ’ab
Antiphonis quidem sententia haec dicendi ratio minime
abhorret’.
559° hercle qui - Qui (indefinite, used only with
particles of.emphasis and assurance)^ seems to be
limited to the works of the comedians.
1. Ernout-Meillet, videre.
2. Lindsay, E.L.V., p.220. Exception, Asin.599 perhaps
emend to neg. videl. int. Sol.
3. Bennett, S E.L., I 478ff.
4. Ernout-Meillet, ilico,
5. Lewis & Short, 2 qui C.
136
quando quidem - See notes, 1.483
560. illae - dat. In Latin from the earliest period,
especially colloquial Latin, there was a tendency
to replace the -ius and -i of the gen. and dat.
of some words with the more familiar -_i, -o, -a_e
endings. In the feminine, this occurs only in the
dat., with one exception (aliae - found in Lucretius
and Cicero), but in the masculine, in both dat.
and gen.^
561. vorsutus - Cicero explains this word,
’versutos eos appello quorum celeriter mens versatur*.2
It often has a sens péjoratif.
563. indipisci de cibo - ’gain his point about
the food’ (Nixon). This seras to be the only logical
interpretation, despite the fact that indipisci
does not appear to have been used elsewhere in this
sense in Plautus or any other author.
564, Notice the indie., licuit, where classical
Latin would prefer a subjunctive, and also the
omission of the subject accusative, qe, an omission
CIS (ÂS.(c\fer.
which is quite frequent in Early Latin,/whether the
acc. is the same as the subject of the main verb or
nc)1:. ^
56 6c habeon rem pactam? - The problem here is whether
habeo (in the sense ’consider’) is used délibératively
and followed by an acc. and infin. construction^
(with omission of esse), or whether it is a
case of habeo perf. part, being used with the force
of the present perf.3 Wi'th the first interpretation,
the translation here would be, ’Am I to consider the
1. Stolz-Leumann, I 291°
2. Ernout-Meillet, verto.
Z). ]3ennet;t, 8.13.Ij., I :58Z).
4. cfV Stich.436, meam culpam habeto, nisi..etc.
5. cf. Cist.319, hasce aedes conductas habet......
Stich.362n
c o n s V r o o + ie r , 0 0 .0 ,- ^ ccW ^£.,-.qcJU
137
affair settled;’, and with the second, ’Have I
made a bargain (agreement);’ The evidence of
Poen. 854 and 1157, the only other instances where
the phrase occurs, support the former; in both
cases, the verb is in the imperative, and the
deliberative question has similar force here in
the Stichus. In Early Latin, a pres, indie, in a
deliberative question was not uncommon, but when it
occurs, it is confined to dialogue.1
568. poste - See notes, 1.580.
lauturn “ supine after verb of motion.
pyelum - a Greek word, no doubt used here by
Plautus to accentuate the idea of luxury.
foveo originally means ’to warm’, and so ’care
for ’0
570. graphicurn - another borrowing from the
Greek ^ ypacp
_____ ut ..= quam - The use of both ut and quam lends
special emphasis, cf. Asin.581, Gist.537, M.G.400,
Vi(L-75.2
572. It is really for Epignomus, and not Pamphilippus,
to grant the wish of the old man (see 1.552).
accentet senem - A number of intransitive
verbs, when compounded with prepositions, become
transitive and arc construed with the accusative.
This is a feature of Ter., Enn., Naev., Accius,
%
Lucilius and Pacuvius.^
573. ’Assuredly I know no other ground why he
would need a mistress! ’
574. etiam - W.H. Kirk^ has shown that etiam was
originally purely a temporal particle, and that its
later use's can be explained back to this origin.
1. Bennett, S.E.L., I 439° The one exception is Phorm.
736.
2. Lodge, Lex.Plaut., ut II A 2e.
3. Bennett, S.E.L., II 217.
4. AJPh., 1897, XVIII, 26-42.
138
He says that ’in the second century B.C., the
adverb was still in a period of transition....
At this stage of its existence, it shows a certain
mobility and sympathetic quality; it attracts
and is attracted by words or forms of kindred meaning
which often serve to determine its wavering
signification’.
It would therefore be safer, and probably more
natural, to render here ’stifl’ rather than ’really'.
575o perdudum - a hapax legomenon. Probably
archaic..
576. In view of the fact that the brothers stand
to lose a great deal if Gelasimus gets a toehold
in their homes again (cf.1.628), one would expect
greater fears to be expressed than ne quid
advenjens perderem. Epignomus would be much more
anxious concerning his estate.The reading ne rem
adveniens perderem comes to mind here as being more
forceful. It may be that quid, the reading of the
MSS, has been influenced by quid in 1.575, which
occurs at the same position along the line. Notice
the rem ... perderem play, although the word rem
would scarcely be sounded because of the elision.
For the sense rem would have here, cf.1.628,
rem confregimus.
577 o atque ecce - 'and look’, ’Atque can have this
force by itself, cf. 1.582.
578c ludificemur hominem - cf. ludos facis me
(Ampho 571, Aul.253, etc.) but also with the dat.
of the person at Merc.225 =
memorem mones - ’you are reminding someone who
already has in mind the plan of action.’
VL. urnoot , hoooevje.r^ piccvr\<s. : C ’ A+ovvt mcxuvaic, pr>£sa^<=.
qje. cAe “perdlre. opJ<elc^oe ('am vjee., el ce cj^'on
<Iepe-»n.S2- poor orv -pcxrcx.Si-fe CSP per-dko rejtoor.
139
Act IV, Scene ii.
Enter Gelasimus from the forum, R. ’Loquitur quasi
spectatoribus continuet sermonem interruptum,
cfo Merc. 937.’ (Leo)
379f . ’(in the space of time) when I haven’t been
here, I have already taken counsel with my friends..
etc o’ Gelasimus has to impress upon his audience,
to whom the space of an entire scene seems a
long time, that in actual fact, he has been gone
only a very short time ; for otherwise, they
would be expecting him to divulge a rather
lengthy plan of campaign, whereas the one he has
to offer, he sums up in five words, ut me hodie
iugularem fame^
581o iugulo <c iugulum (same root as iugum,
iungo, coniunx, etc.), the place where neck joins
shoulders, so ’t h r o a t H e n c e the meaning of the
verb iugulo , ’strangle’
auctores - in the sense, suasores, impulsores.
582c atque - See notes, 1.577.
583o adgrediar - This verb Plautus treats sometimes
as belonging to the third, sometimes the fourth
(e.g. Rudo299) conjugation.
585° peregre - formed from I.-E. ^pero (’further',
c f o Skto parah) and the locative of ager, agri,
which, through analogy with such adverbs as longe,
changed its final -_i to Cf. notes,-1.516
(perondipi ).
N.B. tribrach in seventh foot. See notes, 1.334
587° medimnum mille argent! - Medignus was a
Greek measure, six times the size of a Roman modius.
1. Ernout-Meillet, iugum.
2. ibid.9 ager.
140
Ritschl actually emends to modios here (replacing
medimnum) - cf. Petr 37,2, nummos modio metitur°
But the Greeks too had the proverb in this form,
peôfpvm amoqerpe icr0a L &pyup Lov to -measure one’s
money by the bushel’, i.e. 'to be very rich’; so it
seems likely that some form of the word pe6ipvoç'
has been transferred by Plautus, in the form
medimnum, straight from his Greek original.
For the form of medimnum, see notes, 1.303°
mille - is always a substantive in Early Latin.
It is regularly followed by a genitive in Plautus.
5890 advorsum - Sometimes, as a preposition, it
follov/s its object (e.g. Bacc .698) , but more
often it precedes it.
fabulare - This is the usual form for the
second singular passive in Early Latin and even in
Cicero, who prefers -re in all tenses other than
the pres. indie., and in this tense too in deponent
verbs. Terence uses only -re, Plautus uses both,
but the form in -ris far less frequently. The
ending -ris is preferred in Augustan times, -re
appears to have been the original form, with -ris
arising on the analogy of active indicative/imperative
e.g. agis / age, so ageris / agere
594 « The English ’Woe I ’ is also derived from a
common I.-E. interjection, appearing in Latin
as vae, used as a natural exclamation of lament.
595o perduint - This is an old subjunctive,
occurring in Plautus, especially in prayers and
execrations. There are also forms like this for
lo C B. Buck, op.cit., p .251, Lindsay, Lat.Lang.,
P"5 33 0
341
credo.. *duo was 0. 'by-stem for both do (’give’)
and -(lo (’put' - as in cre-do ), and the form
under discussion is a trace of the old optative
(as in sin - see notes, 1.268)
596. cd^ c^nam promisi - see notes, 1.447 c
foras - used only with verbs of motion towards
(here implied in promisi). It seems to be the
acc, pic of *fora (Gk. GGpa ).^ Boris,
"/PZjlÈ ('door’) are not represented in the Romance
languages, but replaced by ostium, porta, ianua, •
all of which occur in Plautus, but with far less
frequency. However, foras and fqrjgs^ (signifying
the place within which - loc.pl. of ^fora) the
adverbs, are well attested in the Romance languages :
for they are opposed to domum, domi (dome), and
just as domus signifies the family - seat rather
than the actual habitat (aedes), so fores signifies
access to the house rather than any material objects
This is why the word has been replaced by ones of
more clearly defined signification, porta,
lanua."
597° 'An expletive’ is the term applied
to it by Pennell. Lindsay explains it as representing
malum tibi sit. But, as Plickinger points out,^
it is difficult to draw a sharp line between
genuine accusatives of exclamation and those
accusatives which are felt as more or less dependent
1 c Lindsay, , p. 515 »
2. ibid., pv'550.
3 o Ernout-Meillet, ^fora..
4 0 Lindsay, Synt.Plt., p .138.
5 c RcG. Plickinger', ’The Accusative of Exclamation,
in Plautus and Terence,M AJPh., 1908, XXIX, 303ff°
142
on some verb naturally supplied in thought from the
context. Bennett, on the other hand,^ thinks that
malum here is a sure example of the former. He dismisses
the views of M, Breal on the subject as 'a fantastic
p
theory ^,
605 o illic - ille + ce. ^ illece ^ illec ^ illic . For
illec illic, cf. hec (CIL, I 32) hic.^ For the
dropping of final - e , see notes, 1,380 (poste),
illic homo - ire, Epignomus.
hereditatem - ’After a man’s death, his property
fell to the nearest heirs: in the division, all who
were equal in proximity of relationship -women included shared
alike, and the widow along with her children
was admitted to her proportional s h a r e ^
inhiat quasi essuriens lupus - The Greeks had a
phrase, Xijxoç 'éy^avev ? which meant literally,
’the wolf gaped (in eager expectation)’ and which was
used proverbially of disappointed hopes, Of, Eubulus
(a poet of the Middle Comedy, who was writing about
lo SoE.Lo, II 255-
2, Bréal claims (’L ’Exclamation Malum I/ RPh,, 1912,
XXXVI, 29) that the word here is in fact mnlum, a
synonym for mollifies, which ’désigné un mal funeste
aux biens de la terre, aux fruits, 1 ’amollissement et la
pourri ture .7 L ’exclamation est de meme sorte que chez nos
poetes comiques: La peste ! Il y faut voir un souvenir de
la vie rustique des anciens Latins, He does not explain,
however, how he would solve the difficulties of scansion
which would arise if we accept his views on the etymology,
which are not quoted here but which necessitate the
scansion, nmlum, Poen, 261, Pseud,1295, Aul,249, and
Most.368 require malum to be an iambus or a pyrrhic, not
a spondee or a trochee,
3 o Lindsay, EoL,V., p ,119.
4o Mommsen, o p .cit,, I, p .198,
143
375 B.C.) Auge, 1.11;
wax’ eï Ti Q o 6 \ b i ?.eXe Luixévwv ^ayetv ,
è n e i y e , a,f %o8' à ç X6%oç xav(iv
«al twv5^ auaoTwv ucTTeoov ^'myoppaY^r .
and Euphron (a poet of the New Comedy, who was writing
ca280 BoCo) Adelph,1 ,30 :
TOO Y^P xavetv
\i5:cov 6 Ksvpq CTÙ pHvoç Eopp%aç T^yvpv •
The phrase in all probability occurred 'in Plautus’s
Greek original.
606.non tu sois - See notes, 1.557.
We can hardly read into this line, as Boutemy^
wishes to do, any reference to the Bacchanalian revellers
against whom a law was passed in 186 B.C. The streets
of most large cities are quite dangerous at night,
especially for drunken revellers returning from
a party, who were of course the best game for any thug.
For this reason, in the ancient world, slaves came
to meet their masters after a party and escort them
home, lighting their way (of. notes 1.442). This is
the practice to which ire advorsurn refers in 1.607.
6070 plureis - (a) - for spelling, see notes, 1.497=
608. Pamphilippus is no doubt standing between
Gelasimus on one side, who is agitating to be invited
to dinner, and Epignomus on the other, who is feigning
anxiety lest his brother give in to the parasite.
Epignomus is saying excitedly to Pamphilippus non it,
1. op.cit. See notes, 1.290ff.
144
non it, while in his other oar is Gelasimus’s frantic:
domi mihi tibique tuaeque uxori celeriter cenam coqui.
(N.B. The number of short syllables in the first two
feet, the alliteration of the sound, and
assonance, in the first part of the line, of the
/~i_7 sound.)
ebitat - a hapax legomenon, ex 4- bitere.
611. ’As far as this meal’s concerned, Gelasimus,
you may go unfed today.’ Per after verbs of permitting
occurs 10 times in all in Plautus.^ Another example
is at Cure.554, tu aegrota . .aetatem: per me quidem,
where the notion of permitting is implied in the imperative
Ussing takes it to moan ’si nulla alia cena tibi
parata est , nullam habebis’, which is virtually the
same interpretation. Per hanc cenam Pennell says is an
’invocation, appropriate to the greedy parasite’.
i.e. ’By this meal, you shall have no supper today.’
incenato - has been attracted into the dative.
612. in proxumo - ’next door.’
617c The following suggestions for the line are quoted
in Goetz’s 1896 edition of Plautus:
Acjdalius: posse ed. etc. .... uni locum esse : conspicor.
Ritschl: posce. EP:
edepol tibi opinor etiam uni locum unum conspicor.
unum uni locum etiam
Umfenbach: posce. EP:
edepol tibi opinor etiam cunicum locum ego conspicor
.
Pleckeisen: posce. E P :
edepol tibi opinor etiam uni locum esse con­
spicor.
Lodge, Lex.Plaut., per III 5
145
None of these suggestions solve the problem of the lineending
in Au Studemund’s apograph reads at the end
of the line :
n
C O N D I P_________ ///u ^ .
Perhaps, then, the original line may have read :
posse edepol tibi opino etiam uni locum condi
parasiticum.
Quite often when A ’s scribe ran short of room at the
end of a line, he finished in smaller letters (see 11.528,
596 in the apograph), which may well have been the case
here (cf. small final u ) .
(Opino - suggested by Lindsay as an alternative
reading in the critical apparatus, O.C.T. - is an
alternative (active) form for the usual deponent.
See notes, 1.144=)
Locum parasiticum would be taken by Gelasimus as
meaning ’a place (at dinner) for a parasite’. Epignomus
unfortunately would mean it as ’a place fit for a
parasite i.e. gaol’.
618. o lux oppidi - cf. Enn.Alex.fr.8, o lux Troiae....,
on which Verg. Aen.2, 281, o lux Dardaniae, spes o
fidissima Teucrum, is modelled. There is nodoubt some
sort of tragic parody here. Of. notes, 1.365 °
619. cuneos - ’wedges’.
Cic. Tusc .2,23 (translatin'g a passagefrom the lost
play of Aeschylus, npojapGeîiç' Aoc^jaevoc ) j
Saturnius me sic infixit luppiter
■ lovisque numen Mulciberi ascivit manus,
Hos ille cuneos fabrica crudeli inserens,
Perrupit artus.
146
1.e. Prometheus was lying, his arms outstretched, and
each hand pinned to the ground by a wedge. And it is
difficult to see any other sense in which inter cuneos
ferreos here in the Stichus can be taken. Such
wild exaggerations are common in Plautus’s plays.
620. catellus - This n)t only means ’puppy’ (which
is the sense in which Gelasimus intends it), but also
was a name given to an instrument of confinement and
it may have suggested this to the mind of Epignomus,
who would consign Gelasimus to prison (of. Cure.691f=)=
What the catellus looked like is discussed by E.D.
Allen.1 He identified it with the boia (cf.Capt.888,
wherein Allen sees a strong confirmation for the shape
he thinks it had), the only difference being that the
boia was either of wood or iron, the catellus, so far
as we can see, of iron only. It was in the shape of a Y,
the prisoner’s neck being locked between the two prongs
of the fork, the rest being left to drag on the ground
and thus hamper walking considerably. Allen suggests
that it was given the name catellus because its prongs
embraced the neck like a dog’s fore-paws.
621. exorare meant to beg, with result, of.1.74,
exorabilest.
2
622. genium - Keseberg thinks that this refers here to
Gelasimus’s patron (i.e. Epignomus himself). The meaning
would be that Gelasimus will not do his patron any good
because he will eat him out of house and home. It is
much more natural, however, to take genium as referring
to Gelasimus’s own soul.
lo ’On Os columnatum (Plaut.M.G .211) and Ancient
Instruments of Confinement,’ HSCPh.,1896,VII, 37-64 (p.45f,)
2. op.cit., p.42.
147
623. ’I'll just go ando.o.o'o of.1*334.
625o eo quoque ibo - 'I ’11 go there too (if only you’ll
feed me).’
crucem - Crucifixion was a common way of putting
slaves to death in the Republic. Nixon translates:
’I do believe a dinner or a lunch would induce him to
take the highest place at a hanging’ (i.e. at the top
of the cross).
628/9 - Lindsay follows A for the order of these two
lines, which would follow more smoothly in the reverse
order. Surely 1.628 is a natural explanation of
Epignomus's words in 629, satis spectatast mihi iam tua
félicitas and most naturally follows it,
629. non ego isti apud t e ... - Gelasimus is probably
about to make a final plea to be invited to dinner:
’Aren’t you going t o ’ Non in this case would be
employed in the senseof nonne.^
630-1 - a play on Gelasimus’sname which may wellhave
occurred in the Greekoriginal of the play. (But cf. Amph.
303ff, where it seemsthat the joke is a Plautine
invasion because of the play on the common Roman
praenomen Quintus.) Catagelasimus is a comic formation
from the Greek verb xarayEAdw ('deride’). Lewis & Short
render as ’jeerer’.
1. Lindaay claims (E.L.V., p.72) that non was in fact
another form of nonne which Plautus appears to have employed
on.y in a prevocalic position.
148
633-5ffo Notice hov/ many times -na (or ~n) recurs.
It was a favourite device of Plautus to produce humorous
effects through repetition. Cf. Pud.1212ff.
636. The style is mock-tragic. Notice the inclusion of
the Greek word prothymiae to elevate the tone even
further.
637. parasitarier - 'the masters play the role of
parasites themselves'. In the eyes of an embittered
Gelasimus, Epignomus is going to his own brother’s house
to sponge off him for dinner. For the form of the verb,
see notes, 1,52.
ipsos - the masters,
638. in erastinum diem - See notes, 1.478.
639. potione iuncca - ’with a drink made of rushes’,
so ’noose’. Nixon translates, ’load my throat with a
drink of hemp’.
Not all Plautine plays end well for jparasites. Cf.
Peniculus in the Menaechmi.
Act V, Scene i .
641c more - This can be taken in two ways, and Plautus
may well have intended it as a double entendre. Primarily
it is equivalent to the Greek èÇ ?0oog (Leo). But it
can also be construed as the adverb from morus, a word
which is borrowed from the Greek; (the formation is a
Latin one, the Greek adverb being pwpwç' ; of. Pers.
464; graphics - Greek ypacpixuig ). The word was well-known
149
to Plautus’s audiences* Together with the compound
morologus, it occurs several times in the plays.
644. SagarYnum - is the only possible scansion her e.
On the name, see notes, 1*433*
648, Exit Stichus into the house of Pamphilippus*
Act V, Scene ii.
649. Enter Sangarinus from the harbour, L. He had
accompanied his master, Pamphilippus, on the voyage.
649f o - See p , 16 .
630. e_ril_i_s - is archaic, found only in
Ennius, Plautus and Terence,
652. ut valeat - The phrase ut vales, ’How are you?’,
is here transferred into the form of an indirect
question,
656. hoc - i.e, hunc cadum (see 1*425).
657. pro “ an exclamation expressing surprise or
indignation. It is never used alone, but in Early Latin
is always followed by the acc. (cf. Amph.376,
Cure.694, Epid,580) or the voc. (as here, and always
when the names of gods follow),i
658. risiones - archaic.- 2
savia- = suavia,and is found only in Plautus.
661. Dionysum - the figure here is metonymy (in Latin
denominatio, of. Ad Herenn. IV, xxxii, 43). Stichus is
of course, referring to the wine-jar.
1 * Richter, op.cit*, p.615.
2 Ernout-Meillet.
150
662. locus liber - used in Plautus exclusively with
regard to a ’free place’ for some form of debauchery
(Bacc.82, Cas.535,537,::Per8*805, Poen.177,602,657).
Here, however, there may be a double entendre, for Liber
was the name of the Italian god who was identified with
Dionysus. Double meanings did not always have very
subtle application
666u quis somniavit aurumr - Leo, in an attempt to explain
this, says ’aurum somniare apud Artemidorum mali ominis
fere est, servis saltem’, basing his assertion on a passage
in the second bookof Artemidorus’s Onirocriticus. The
’bad omen’ in this passage is of course the cadus vini
v/hich could spell disaster for the two slaves who are
to be set loose on it. Professor R.B* Onians however,
suggests that it is simply a case of slaves chaffing one
another. Quis somniavit aurum is said in the same spirit
as we would say, ’Who is building castles in the air?’
and get the reply ’What has that to do with you?’.
671. redeundi principium placet - Principium placet is
elsewhere followed by ^ with the abl. of a substantive
(Amph. 801, Stich.358).
668. For the omission of the vocative, Sangarine, in the
MSS, cfo Epid 0553 = In the original, the vocative wouldbe
immediately folbwed by the nota personae of the next
speaker, who is Sangarinus, which would be written in
full or in contraction. The vocative Sangarine then
dropped out through haplography.^
672. Cfo notes, 1.461.
Act V, Scene iii.
673 o Enter Stephanium from Epignomus’s house. (See p. 42 ).
It was customary if a character made an entrance or exit
1. Lindsay, Lat. Tex. Emend., p. 39f.
151
from or in an unexpected direction, that he must
explain carefully his reasons for doing so. See p.llO
N.B. 1.673 rhymes with 1.674-5.
676. dudum - See notes, 1.498.
679. euro takes the acc. when it is used in the
sense colo, foveo, alo. This is a common usage and
appears again here at 1.682. When it is followed by
the dat., it has the sense consuls, provideo, a usage
which is not found in the writers of the classical period
681. See p. 26 (III B 7a).
adlegavit - This verb is used more in connection
with private affairs, whereas the simple lego is the
usual word in public affairs. ^
Act V, Scene iv.
683. ferte pompam - Pompa is from the Greek Tidjjuir] 5
’a procession’, and so any show of magnificence,
ostentation. (Cicero uses it of words - Orat. 72, 294=)
Platus uses it again at Bacc.114, where the old
pedagogue intercepts his ex-pupil on his way to a house
of ill-repute, laden with supplies for the forthcoming
festivities.
The use of ferte (pi.) here implies that there was
a train of slaves to carry out the provisions.
foras -T Such scenes as these were actually
portrayed 'al fresco'’ on the Roman stage and did not
take place in an imaginary interior* R.C. Plickinger
says :^ ’Everyone knows that in Plautus and Terence
scenes are represented in the open air and before the
house which residents in more northern climes would
lo Thes.LingoLat., euro II 2a.
2. ibid., II 3o
3o Ernout-Meillet, lego.
4. ’The Factual Basis for Representing Indoor Scenes
al fresco in Roman Comedy,’ 1939, XXXIV, 538-40.
2
152
expect to belong indoors. This situation is usually
Explained as due to the limitation of the ancient theaters
and justified on the basis of the way people live in
a warm climate*' He goes on to explain how this was
still a very frequent sight in Italy right up to the
time the Fascist regime came into power* He quotes
Harte (Island in the Sun, p .26?f.): 'However, in its
zeal for cleansing, the new regime (i.e. the Fascists)
has done away with many picturesque old customs. One
of the most familiar of these was the habit of turning
the street into a living room by bringing out from one's
house table and chairs, of cooking and eating one's meals
there, exchanging visits with neighbours similarly
established, and generally spending pleasant hours
of leisure 'al fresco'* The fact that indoor living
conditions among the poor were appalling made this
expansion into the street even more desirable.' In real
life, of course, such scenes would take place indoors as
often as out, but they were common enough as open-air
scenes to justify the playwrights in constantly
portraying them in this fashion* (Cf* Arist *Clouds Iff. *
Eur* Orest. Iff., Plaut. True.448ff., Most.248ff., etc.)l
f j p
684= omnibus modis - Lindsay says such an
accentuation is 'contrary to the metrical accentuation
of this phrase in the dialogue metres of Plautus and
Terence (omnibus modi^ - Pseud.1074, Rud.290, Ter.
Hec.701)' and therefore omnimodis may be preferable.
1. R.C. Flickinger, The Greek Theater and its Drama,
4th ed., Chicago : University Press, 1936, p.239.
2. 'Two School Editions of Plautus,’ OT, 1894, VIII,
p.159.
153
686o comissatum - The verb comissor is from the
Greek xwidqw ^ and is colloquial, first appearing
in Latin in Plautus(Later it was spelled comessor,
under the influence of a false derivation from comesse.)
In Imperial times, the comissatio seems to have been
the drinking-party which took place at the conclusion
of the dinner. At Trimalchio's, it was continued in a
second dining-room* ^ Perhaps the meal in the
Stichus was taken indoors, and it is only the drinkingparty
which the audience saw performed before them in
scenes iv - vii. The references in 1.690f* are possibly
only to small dainties which would be consumed after
the meal and with the wine.
688o polluetura - an offering. It is an old term
from the language of ritual, used only in archaic and
%
archaizing authors. Gf, 1.233 and notes, 1.708*
689c monotropi - povoTpoTioç , 'living alone',
simply 'alone'.
690f. See notes, 1.686.
690. commodule - Adverb with esse is a common feature
of colloquial Latin. Cf. 1.337, etc *
691, We should consider Ussing's oleae intertrito only
'si audacia suppeteret', as he himself says : 'intertrito quasi
intrito, vocabulo novo, sed recte formato*
i.e. oleis conditis. Cf. Cato R.R.117, 'Oleae albas
1. 'to revel'. The Latin formation in -isso is influenced
by types, which formed a large proportion of verbs
borrowed from Greek into Latin. xLopoç ('carousal') 'mostly
ended in the party parading the streets, crowned, bearing
torches, singing, dancing, and*playing all kinds of
frolics * In course of time, public xwiio i were set on
foot in honour of several gods, esp. Bacchus ' (Liddell &
Scott). See p.7.
2. Carcopino, op.cit., p.269»
1 “ ^ c b l cx
f e rry\4^.ci VIU VOh tcll, p
^ 0S-ec\ a s cx_ %/c a n lv , L o d -irv .
154
quemadmodum condiantur. Ante quam nigrae fiant,
contundantur et in aquam deiciantur. Crebro aquam mutet,
deinde, ubi^^satis maoerratao erunt, exprimât et in acetum
coniciat et oleum addat; salis selibram in modium olearum
feniculum et le ntiscum seorsum condat in acetum*'
Goetz's suggestion, oleis in tryblio, is at least
worth mentioning.
692 0 Lindsay objects to the scansion modeste (see p. 19y
II la) which the inclusion of melius in the line
necessitates. For other instances of the omission of
the comparative, see Men.726, Poen.747 etc.
693. decet - usually takes the acc. The only instances
in Early Latin where it is followed by the dat. are
Amph.280,1007, Pers.213, Ter. And.491, Heaut.965, and
here, Stich.693 =^
694o Samian ware was an imitation of the red pottery made
on the island of Samos. It had a glazed finish. It was
generally used by 'respectable people who could not
afford silverware'.^
___ batiocis - probably from the Doric form of the
Greek PaTLdxp and PaTLcfxiov , Ritschl prints batiacis,
but the MSS -here retain the and this is also the
spelling preserved in several glosses : Placid.pd3,
ed.Deuerl, 'batioca: patera argenti ad sacrificandum';
cod.Vossianus Fol. 82 (etc.), batioca: patera; Imogontis
de vet.voc.p.69, batioca: patera area turalis. In the
Doric dialect a often became o .^
1. Bennett, S .E.L., II 106.
2. Diet.Class.Ant.
G.Loewe. Prodromus Corporis Glossariorum Latino rum,
Leipzig: teu m o T 'T 1876 , .276r:"~
Ernout cicce.‘pV)S Exon's ert-xetnc^cxVi o\r\ cx/vi(ccxrr^ here
' >-- -----—— ) f
'hhe S c a n S 'o r \ o f w k i c E he, e.vvcAe.nV\^ -V'ndis
sod is-foc.-t C r y . QSee. p. 2 o ^ iT | cv -j
155
695- ïïioenia - here an archaic form for munia (munera).^
696. mica'^- Lindsay's ingenious emendation is very
suitable here. The verb is found with its extended use
at Varr. Men*596 ; and d t Calp *Ecl*2,26, 'the order of
singing is decided by the game of 'morra', as the Italians
call it, v/hich is still in use in Italy on similar occasions,
just as we are in the habit of 'tossing up'* ' The
two players simultaneously raise any number of fingers
they choose, at the same time crying a number. If the
number so cried by one of the players proves to be the
sum of the number of fingers raised by both, the player
scores a point * /There were variations on the game the
simplest form being to guess the number the other
is going to raise *_/ If both are right, or both wrong,
it counts for nothing* ^ The action in the game of morra
is denoted by the verb, micare * Here, at Stich. 696,
it is used in its extended sense, 'toss up'* (In the
Varro passage, the construction is: micandum erit****
utrum, etc.)
Leo's age dice necessitates a proceleusmatic in the
second foot.
The proceleusmatic is as uncommon in trochaic verse as it
is in iambic, but it does occur* Lindsay prints a
selection of 55 occurrences in trochaic verse *^
For Ussing's age die, see notes, 1*185.
N.Bo tribrach in seventh foot* See note, 1*334.
697. pacto hoc - This wrord-order is unparallelled in
Plautus, Whether pacto is qualified by quo, quoius, istoe,
aliquo, alio, eodem, hoc, illoc, eo, ullo, or -ullo,
it always follows the word by which it is qualified *
1 o Ernout-Meillet*
2. C.H* Keene, ed * of The Eclogues of Calpurnius Siculus,
London : G * Bell & Sons, 1887 -
3. E.L V*, p *104. The list is not exhaustive *
156
6991fo Notice the rhymes - Libero , Libère, voie,
convivio, subsellio; dulcius, cantbarus.
699 - Either observe a hiatus at the change of speaker,
or read, as Lindsay suggests, provinciai. On this form,
see notes, 1*202*
Eons - a Roman god of the springs *
Pontine an Libero - metonymy - a jug of water, a jar
of wine. On the habit of mixing water with wine,
see notes, 1*273-
701c dum cenat - is corrupt* See l*743f- If the scansion
^xornat is offensive, Lindsay suggests alternatively
to read dumq' (cf* notes, 1*505).
702. stratèges - a Greek word, in Latin, the magister of
the cena* 'It was the exclusive right of the master of
ceremonies to prescribe the number of cups, imposed equally
on all, and the number of cyathi that should be poured
1
jnto each, which might vary from one to eleven*'
703f. Lindsay’s suggestion, to read quam potius, gives
the passage better sense* If the words are kept in the
order potius quam, the second quam in the lext line would
be unnatural, so close to the first* Lindsay's version
(reading his suggestion, illectice for the corrupt portion)
can be translated: 'How much better we take our
entertainment on a bench like the cynics rather than like
lovers of luxury '(illectice - instead of the expected
in lectis; for a similar play on words, Lindsay directs
us to True *422 adsiduo - accubuo)*
Sangarinus's reply may imply that he prefers to eat
sitting upright on a bench, or it may imply that he has the
comfortable chair referred to at 1 *93 (q.v*) .
1, Carcopino, op *cit^, p *269 -
157
The Cynic philosophy flourished in the third
century B.C. The main object of the sect, originally,
was to return to the natural life, which was seen as
identical with the simple life ^
For accipio = 'entertain', cf,1.615. Similar is the
English, 'receive', in the sense to receive guests and
entertain them.
706 o cyathos - measuring-cups. See notes, 1.702. Spoons
or ladels (trua, trulla) were also used for this purpose.
Wine was ladelled out with them from the mixing-bowl
(crater) into the drinking-vessels.
707. The numbers refer to the number of cyathi, not
to the proportion of the mixture, as is shown by 1.708,
'mix in one-tenth part water'.
708. It is difficult to see in what sense decumum (A)
is intended, unless cyathum is to be understood. Even
so, it is hardly likely that Sangarinus would already
have tossed back nine measures of wine, in order to advise
his companion to take the tenth from the water-jug.
The reading decumam (P), especially if the words decumam...
sapis are allotted to Stichus, has a little more point,
though one part water to nine of wine is hardly a weak
mixture and does not sound very much like a plea for
temperance (- it is Stichus who is all the time practising
or advising restraint : 705, Sang; qur hie cessât cantharus?
710, Stich: edepol convivi sat est ; 719, Stich: vel
servato meum modum ... etc.). Perhaps, though, Stichus
is playing on the word decuma, in the sense, 'tithe',
a sense in which it often occurs in Latin literature.
Admittedly, a 'tithe' was vowed almost exclusively to two
deities, Hercules (cf.1.233) and Apollo : but maybe it is
extended humorously here to the deity. Pons (which, of
course, refers to the water-jug), and instead of vowing a
tithe to, the advice is to extract a tithe from.
15S
Cf, the comic use of the technical word, polluctura,
1.688.
709= NoBo tribrach in ^seventh foot. Sc^e notes, 1,334,
710f These two lines may well be, as Langen and Leo
think ; alternatives for 11,712-33, Cf * notes, 1,208a,
712ff. Stichus prepares to drink a toast, but, probably
considering his cup needs refilling, reminds Sangarinus
vinum tu habes, who pours out the wine while he says
his next words, Stichus pours in the water for himself
and handg the jug to Sangarinas (tene aquam), Sangarinus,
having added the water, catches sight of the flautist,
and staggers across the stage to offer him the drink,
V e lle m — In E a r ls j p o W v -rV > a l
expressed by ike: pres. 3 .v e / ^ 3 . the.
per vso^e. restr to y e.Uenn cxnü rrici\Wm
vobgYn a %S exyresse.ct //iKe^ E»q^\»sKL wvs>b'/)^q)
vr\ L-cLlin Ccyn be. USe.ci vy itp i be. sense, of
veUeng - S e e Ho.nd'fortdl,o p c-ii~.p.I ; c&nd vn the ccLSe c f ofher
verbs, the imperfect in this use denotes what would be
true if some contingency more or less clearly impLed were
real, In the great majority of cases the imperfect
constitutes the apodosis of a formal conditional
sentence, containing a protasis introduced by £i, nisi,
ni 0^
714, cuppedia - can signify both good food (as here)
2
and also the love of good food, as the French, friandise,
lo Bennett, S,E,L., I 203
2* Ernout-Meillet,
159
715 « Lindsay objects to the scansion si quid, ^
and suggests that agis be omitted:
bibe, tibicen; age, sT quid bi/behd^n^, hercl/e^ hoc est;
1 u ne
nega.
He translates: 'Down with it, Mr, Musician: Cornel this
drink, of all others, must go down. No flinching'. He
explains that a scribe, thinking of the common phrase,
age si quid agis (e.g. 1.717), could have added agis
carelessly, or else a corrector, scenting an ellipse,
supplied the supposed missing word in a note.^
An alternative interpretation, also proposed by
Lindsay (O.C.T.), is to take 11.714-5 as a trochaic
system:
nihil est, tene aquam, melius dicis; nil moror cuppedia.
bibe tibicen, age si quid agis, bib(fndum hercle h o c est,
n e negaT.
The phrase age si quid agis is comparable to our
impatient 'Come if you're coming!' (Pennell).
717. 'It's at the public's expense, isn't it?' (see notes,
didascalia 1.5). Bennett^ classifies non-questions
under two headings; the type, which seem to be exclamatory,
where non and the verb are together either at the beginning
or near the end of a sentence; (see 11.557,606) and the
1.^ E.L V ., p,75o The scansion would be:
bibe tibicen ag^ si quid agis bïbéhd^n^ he'rc]^^ hoc est ne nega
Even if the scansion, si quid, were tolerable, this would I
be the only instance where quid did not bear the ictus
in this phrase (E.L.V., p.317) .
^ reiovns ^ v S c\r\d seons b\
3o SoE #Jjo I 4"S0o
160
type, which are real questions, where the verb comes
at or near the end of the sentence, and which may have
been the origin of the nonne- questions. It is to the
latter class that non hoc impendet publicum belongs*
718* "Wom est - is followed by an infinitive at Poen*
573 and Ter *_A^d *678 ; this is the only instance where
the acc * andinfin* follow *
, istuc - ^i8tod-ce ^ istocc V .istEc (old form)
The final syllable is long by position, not by nature.
The only place in Early Latin where the word is scanned
as a pyrrhic is at Ter *And *941.^
720* Mueller’s suggestion is prosum hoc ebibere, which
the scansion probably precludes (rei br^tmus"^- see p. 24
III A5), though the use of•prosum is quite legitimate
(in the s e œ ’utterly’ as at Aul. 397, prosum **. peril)*^
nulli rei *.* *etc.- 'We'll be good for nothing
afterwards.'
721. vel - is the old second sing* pres, imperative of
volo (lit, 'choose') and is used here in the same sense
as at 11*426, 619«
724. bestia - any sort of animal, wild or tame * The
word is usually confined to colloquial Latin*^
725. demutassit - See notes, 1*149=
726. bonum ius dicis - 'Pair enough*'
727 = hie retinebo ilico - .Although Sangarinus has
appointed Stichus strategus of the party (1=702), he has
managed to keep a remarkably good watch over the wine-jar,
which is after all the most important part of it *
1 * Por change of £ to u of* C,L* Buck op *cit *, p.82ff*
2* Lindsay, E *L *V *, p =138* •
3. J.C. Rolfe, 'Prorsus TAPhA, 1920, LI, 30-39.
4 o Ernout-Meillet.
Cc\r\ b e V o fo L lly e|vcüeo(.
161
728. o_mnium ^rimum - The phrase seems to have occurred
just as frequently with this order as with the reverse.
729. facetiast - 'It's a nice thing,' Facetia is
usually found in the plural*
730* scortum - the colloquial word for meretrix. Its
primary meaning is 'skin'. Cf. Pr. peau which has the
same two connotations.^
733. ubi *c*.o ibi - referring to time: cf* Capt*912b,
5^,1176, Poen.298.
734. optaedescat - impersonal: a hapax legomenon, the
equivalent of taedeat *
Por nolo with the subj *, see notes, 1.397 =
735c censeo - 'Yes', cf. 1*428. A common usage*
741. 8£ .* * si - an anaphora, uncommon in Plautus (Ussing
Act V, Scene v.
742. Lindsay thinks^ that P's reading was originally a
gloss to explain the rather unusual morigerabor, and
crept into the text that way *
Ussing'8 solution is merely to delete the vobis,
and scan: / , ^
morem geram meae deliciae naiip ita me Venus amoena) amet*
Leo retains P's reading; but this necessitates the
scansion of vobis as a monosyllable* An old monosyllabic
form for nobis is attested in Paulus (Paul*/Pest.33,6 Th.)
Callim antiqui dicebant pro clam, ut nis pro nobjs. sam
pro suam. im pro eum*^ In the plays of Plautus, such
a scansion for nobis_ or vobis would hold good, in Leo's
opinion, at Capt *250, Cure *84, Bud *1137, Merc.699,988,
Poen.222,1078, and here, Stich*742*^ But it will be seen
that in five of these instances, a disyllabic scansion is
1. Ernout-Meillet.
2 * iiat♦Tex .Emend *, p*63f.
3c Lindsay, Lat *Lang*, p.425 =
4* P*Leo , 'Zu Plaute ,' Rhein.Mus . , XVIII, p. 586.
162
also possible, and in the remaining two instances, a
slight emendation dispenses with the necessity of a
monosyllabic scansion (Cure.84, Merc *699 - see O.C.T.).
deliciae - a term of endearment, used in the plural
also sometimes when referring to one person. The word
has the same root as illecebra, del.icio ('to entice away'),
and inlicio ('to entice towards').
amet - optative subjunctive. This construction
(ita - opt.subjo -ut) occurs both in Plautus and
Terence, The conditional c^se following it, however, is
unusual.
745. terta - ^ tergeo. The usual form of the participle
is tersus *
ficta - fingo, 'to model', and, when used of
dress, is usually in reference to the h a i r T h e verb
was often also used in a bad sense. Prom 'model', it came
to mean 'make up', 'contrive', and so was applied to
things which were not real (cf, English 'fiction'). Notice
the play on words, ficta.,.infecta, which sound similar,
although . they are not connected etymologically *
747 = ut placeat - takes the place of a substantive, in
antithesis to pdium.
munditia - mundus means both 'own' (cf.1,477) and
'clean', as the French, 'propre'.
749. totus ,. . potus - 'I feel punk,* Sang: 'Drunk? '
N.B. tribrach in seventh foot. cf. notes, 1.334.
750. accumbo - See notes, 1.357 (lectos sternite).
751 » vapulat peculium - Vapulo is used in the same
sense as the passive of verbero. Peculium ( pecu)
was originally a small part of the flock left to the
slave who had tended it, and came to mean any personal
property.
1. Thes.Ling.Lat., fingo I B3-
163
_ caput - the source of life, so ’self. Cf .Rud *374-5,
vae capiti atque aetati tuae.
757 - date bibat - This seems to be more than a
paratactic construction: perhaps it is comparable to the
French, Donne-lui ^ boire ?
758. postidea loci - adverb with gen. 'of the whole', as
it is described by Bennett^ (cf. ubi gentium). This
construction (with the gen. of locus) recurs in
interea loci, and with the pl., locorum, in postid locorum
and adhuc locorum, all of which occur in either Plautus
or Terence or both. Inde loci is found at Enn.Ann.20,
337, 45s E
760. Qccupito - See notes, 1.20 (lacruma).
761. ex unguiculls - cf. Epid.623, usque ab unguiculo
ad capilium summumst festivissuma.
Act V, Scene vi
762-8. See p. 38.
762. dudum - See notes, 1=498.
764. Plautus does not always distinguish the voc. of the
second dëcl, sing^ from the nom. (the second decl. being
the only one where the two cases are ever distinguishable)
in the colloquial language of terms of endearment.
(See Asin.664, Cas.137») Usually endearing expressions
(which are not merely terms of address) are without
a foregoing £. (Exceptions: Stich.583^ Cas.235, Cist.
644, Cure.305, Men.137, M X . 1330, True.391.
765. prostibilest - prostibilis est. See notes, 1.74 =
Notice also the play on words, prostibilest.,. stantem/
stanti: both have the same root, but prostibilest
has, of course, a specialised meaning.
1. S.E.L., II 37.
2. ibid., II 272f.
164
767 = The words, sic furl datur, have better sense
if they are attributed to Sangarinus. Stichus, after he
says prostibilest.... amicaeV, proceeds to demonstrate
the correct approach* Sangarinus's cries of joy are
occasioned by Stephanium’s retaliation, Puri, because
Stichus has stolen the girl from him.
768. redd’ - On the dropping of final ~ e see notes,
1.505= Evidence found in Cicero shows that an imperative
in -e, when ’jammed up against’ a following word
beginning with a consonant, dropped its final -£ in
pronunciation. He says that cave ne eas in pronunciation
sounded like cauneas, and cape si vis like capsis.^
Other instances where an imperative of such type
has had its final -£ dropped are to be found at Pseud.239,
and perhaps Aul.655^ (where the dropping of the would
prevent a proceleusmatic in the first foot - the verse
is trochaic metre, in which the proceleusmatic is very
rare ).
Act V, Scene vii.
769. lonicus - Ionia was always associated with
licentiousness, and the dance here was certainly a
licentious one (1.7601.). Cf. Pseud. 1273-5, orant med
ut saltern./ ad hunc me modum intuli illis satis facete/
nimis ex discipulin(^, quippe ego qui/probe lonica perdidici
770. alio me provocato - lit. ’provoke me with another’ ’challenge
me in another'.
771o babae - an expression of surprise in Latin (and in
lo Lindsay, E.L.V., p.183=
2. Quoted by Skutsch, Plaut. und Roman., p.149
165
Greek). Of its use here, Richter^ says : ’quae (i.e.
babae, tatae, papae ) quamquain temere exclamantur, quoniam
de ebriis agitur, admirationis notionem hie non apparere
vix quisquam mirabitur’.
tatae - a hapax legomenon.
paj)ae - See notes, 1.425»
pax - an exclamation in Greek as well as Latin.
Hesychius says « méXoc ^ enough'.
775» All Plautus’s plays ended with an appeal to the
audience.
1. op.cito, p.421
2. ibid., p.6l3f»
166
A P P E N D I C E S
167
METRICAL NOTES
The figures following (e.g. II 1 a, etc,) refer
to sections in the Introduction on the Metres of
PlaubUSo Lines
1-17 are scanned fully in the Introduction
18o sor'or II 1 a
20, soror II 1 a
210 pater II 1 a
22 0(melius) II 3 a
23 o (novi e[jù) ilium *
24 o (nequKe)) ille (sibi) ^
25o âûrei (perhibentur) II 1 b
26c (ut) istuc (faciat)
27 o tamen (si) II 1 a
26, decet (neque id) II 1 a
29o viri II 1 a ^
34-5» id d'oies soror (quia) ,0, su(oii) officium
II 1 b, II 1 a II 1 b
^ \—
s^ion^ officium
II 3 a
36 c colunt II 1 a : (tu) tudm II 3 b
39 o meo animo - see n otes. ^
40o Officium II 1 bj or 'd'fficium II 3 a
41o sorKr II 1 a
42 o tudm II 3 a
43» inprobi - see notes.
47» placet (taceo at) meminer^s (facito)
II 1 a II 1 b
49 » (nequ6^) ille'*' eos II 3 a
53» patris II 1 a
U V
56 c suam II 3 a
57 » usus (sit) II 2 d
59 » voluntate II 1 b
168
61c minus (meministis) ,o. opus (sit) II 2 d
62 o (iarn quident) in sucT II 1 b, II 3 a
65 0 m^ito II 3 a
66, moani (naiorern) II 3 a
67. See notes.
V .V -r-r T
soror, nater II 1 a
69. ille »
78, gno II 3 a
79o sclOy meas ll 3 a
V.\J
81. spatTTT II 3 a
S3 « (sed) j'.oc (mihi ) II 1 h
85. èârum II 3 a
88 o enim (inihi) II 1 a
91. (sat) est ("occuli) II 1 d ,qui // amabo II 4 a
94. satis (sic) II 2 d
95. opust (a^o ) II 1 a
96o enim nimis (curare) ..... suLm (parentem)
II 1 a II 2 d II 3 a
97. aequiust ~ see notes.
98. viros II 1 a 5 (esse)nos II 1 b
99. bonas II 1 a
100. perinde - see notes.
101. eos II 3 a
102. (num quis) hic II 1 b
104. nam // ego II 4 gq.mulierum II 5 a
105. quibus (matronas) II 2 d
107. (quid) istuc (est quod) hue II 1 c
111. tu%: II 3 a
/ V \ V
118. (hau mal(e\) istuc* o.. siet II 3 a
V., . . / U V
125. (et) ilia-:: ... (sibO) esse II 1 b
127. (sed) hoc (est) II 1 b, (quod) ad (vds) II 1 b
135. placet I l i a . . . sûôs II 3 a
137. (quid) illos'*’« .0. qui // abhinc II 4 g
147. intro // immo II 4 o
152. heri // - see notes.
169
157a. refero // invilisGunus II 4 d , or else have
no caesura,
159. nam // ilia II 4 g
162 o rjuominus (laboris) II 2 d
171. ridiculum // hominem - no suitable explanation.
176. (quia) M n d ’ II 1 b, see also notes,
177. eo II 5 a
179. (p^r) Uniiohaiii II 1 b
180c essuri0 // acrius - no suitable explanation.
-A V u X
182c siquis n# essum
II 2 d II 1 b
185. (ver/j)) illo*
196. (hic) illest*
202c siet (caussai) II 3 a, and see notes.
205. II 3 a
216. fame // emortuos - see notes.
221. vendo // age II 4 d
223. Hercules - see notes.
232. iam // opus II 4 g
234-5. auctionem // hau II 4 f (?)
237. quis haec est - see notes.
238. (quid(5iô) est II 1 b
250. (e#) illQ:>
254, (ut) ab (se) II 1 b
257. (nïs9)) iioc II 1 b
261. reliqui // eccam II 4 f
262. ^quïdem. (^sT)lI 1 b
263. (ituru’s) an (non) II 1 b
266. (quid) ïllaec*
270. puerum // hoc II 4 d
271. facete // atque II 4 d
274. lovïs (qui) II 2 d
284. suôm II 3 a, expetit II 1 b
285. cave (quemquam) II 1 a
170
287o prius (pervortito) II 2 d
298. m%o II 3 a
309. (aperiilet) atque II 1 b
31I 0 fores 00. pedes II 1 a
312 o nimis (vellem) zll 2 d, fore's II 1 a, 'ëaT II 3 a
319-20. iuua II 3 a ,
321. (quid) IS tic':: inest (quas) II 1 b
322. pudor II 1 a
'7r~\ ^ L/, V- , n
p25c 1ores ubist II 1 a
V V y V \J
3270 ean gratia II 3 a, fores II 1 a
329 0 quidem // harurn - no suitableexplanation.
328. tnos II 3 a
3310 (r'ê'spïcèt) ad (me) II 1 b
344. dudum // ego // isturn II 4 h
347 0 simulque (liarundinem) II 1 a
349 o “êorum II 3 a
350. (quid) illos*
332. (ëcquïs) hue II 1 b , cum //aqua II 4 g
353 0 (egot) hïnc II 1 b
371. tTTüm II 3 a
372. II 3 a
374» argenti // aurique - see notes, nimis (factum)
II 2 d
376. multam // est II 4 b
381. eximia // eugepae II 4 c
388. secum // ei II 4 c
391. II 3 a
394o mVÉ' II 3 a
393. deus (sis) II 2 d
396. i // intro II 4 a, iube II 1 a
398. enim (vero) II 1 a
409. e^I I 3 a,
418. (^g(e)) abduce II 1 b
419. si // ego II 4 a, sc'tô II 3 a
422. me // eleutheria II 4 a
424o abi II 1 a
171
432. ^ II 3 a
436. m^eaîii II 3 a
441. scTd II 3 a
448. lir^t II 1 a
455 0 meurn II 3 a
457. II 3 a
459. ff. See notes for hiatuses.
465. Epignome // ut II 4 f
477. nescioquid vero // habeo II lb , and no suitable
explanation for hiatus.
rnundo // i II 4 c
485. magis (via) II 2 d
489. esse // unisubselli II 4 e
494. te // II 4 a
501o eapse II 3 a
509. te // ami cum II 4 a
510. tubh II 3 a
511. apud (se) II 1 a
512. magi8 (par) II 2 d
513. (ad) ilium*
515. apud (me) II 1 a
517. (in) hunc diem II 1 b, II 3 a
520. perinde - see notes, 1.100.
521. item (firmi) II 1 a
526. omnium (me) II 1 b
527. (sed) eccum II 1 b
530. magis (quam) II 2 d
532. vKluptatibus II 1 b
534. deos II 3 a (normally monosyllabic, E .L .V ., 195)
(rao'JCp)) intrd" II 1 b
536. Spud (nos) II 1 a
539. ffert II 3 a
540. meae, duobus II 3 a
541. meae II 3 a
542. erant II 1 a
543. (sed) ille* ^.72
547c Jifeam II 3 a ^
549» (quis istuc*) dicit (an ille*) II 1 b
551, diîâ.run II 3 a
552c (quis) istuc* _
554» dum // equidem II 4 g, in'éum II 3 a
556. qui // mini II 4 a, II 3 a
557» 1Ills80 II 3 a
558. (ubm) Ille*
563, s^nex (quidem) II 1 a
565» facis (benigne) II 2 d
573, opus (sit) II 2 d
576, adveniens II 1 b
577» in (s'errlbne) II 1 b
580. cum // amicis II 4 g
581. fuere II 3 a
589» iibuliru//illud (quidem) II 40,II 1 b.)
591» (mih(i)) ipsi* ; meae II 3 a, scitis (vos) II 2 <L
597» foras II 1 a, malum (tibi) II 1 a
598. 1oris II la, iuben II 1 a
599» (ad) ilium*
600. enim (solus) II 1 a
vu
601. mêâ II 3 a
602. d'omi II 1 a
606. quam // ecilictentur II 4 e
609» domi II 1 a, mihi, tuaeque - to prevent
pr(^celeusmatic feet.
611. (per) hanc II 1 b
612. apud (fratrem) II 1 a
614» (per) horturn II 1 b
VL yj ^
616. tua II 3 a, enim (siquidem) I l i a
618. accubes II 1 b
6I9» (ve'l) inter II l^b
620. cMbet I l i a , (nii sat) e II 1 b
179
VU
622. tuom il 3 a, eauius ftu) II 3 a , II 2 d
623» de"o8 II 3 a
626. potest II 1 a
628. parasitus (rnih-i) II 2 d, iuisti II 3 a
629c (egd) ïsti* apud (te) II 1 a
630“lo(nîî) iMeri (te) II 1 b
633-5ovides II 1 a
636. VId'un II 1 a
637. vid^n II 1 a
641» II 3 a
642. 3um II 4 a
653» (e<i)) ut (diceret) II 1 b
UV
656. tûom II 3 a
657» voluptâtes II 1 b
660. (8tii]b0) ï i e n (quid) II 1 b
662. locus (liber)II 2 d
663» apud (vos) II 1 a
671c sequor II 1 a
672. bbnk II 1 a
683» cad^ II 1 a
684» omnibus (modis) II 2 d, and see notes.
685» di // ament II 4 a
686. qui squi s (praetereat) II 2 d, v'olo II 1 a
688. datur (nemini) II 1 a
689» ministrêmus II 1 b
690. sat18 (commodule) II 2 d
692. (sKt) est s'êrvo // homini II 1 b, and no
suitable explanation for hiatus.
v u U/ vu ’ U / \
693. suom II 3 a, decet II 1 a, quibus (divitiae)
domi II 2 d, II 1 a
694. bibunt II 1 a
695. t%meii (bibimus) II 1 a
a696. abi II 1
697» (p'ac'bCot'eg0) iioc II 1 b
174
699. (quid) istue* .... provinciae // utrurn see
notes.
701c See notes.
710. l'ibis (non) II d. a, apud (me) II 1 a, me //
edepol II 4 b, c
711 o mod o' II 1 a
713c nimis (vellem) II 2 d
716. v^d^s II 1 a
717. (^ccipCe)) ïnquâm II 1 b
718. baud t'tiprn)ïstuc* or baud t^.ioL^ istuc II 3 a,
vereri // eripe II 4 d (eriget) ex (ore) II 1 b
719. (uim) illic* .... meum II 3 a
722. fuisti II 3 a
723. (refer) ad (labeas) II 1 b
726. b^num (ius) II 1 a
727. (agê) ergo) opsârva II 1 b
730. potare // unum II 4 b
734- satYs (nolo) II 2 d
736. amabilis - cf. Ill A 2 c
737. foras II 1 a, satis (mihi) II 2 d
741o si // amabilitas II 4 a, placet II 1a, (si'
tit(])) ^rgo) II 1 b
742. m ^ e II 3 a
744. nam //ita II 4 g
7460 repperït II 1 b
747. sTia II 3 a
r
748. (mei#) est (oratio) II 1 b
750o (utrui^O)) accumbo II lb, arnbobus (volo) II 2 d
753. cum // utroque II 4 g
754. di // ament 11^ 4 a, fiet II 3 a
758. ("et) quidem (nobis) II 1 b, tène II 1 a
759. consuetu’s II 3 a
762. tenV II 1 a
763. tene II 1 a
771. modo // at II 4 c
774. satis (pro) II 2 d
* The shortening of ille, iste, is very common,
when these pronouns are not emphatic and are preceded
by a short syllable (E.L.V., p .55).
Theatre
Roman theatres were, as the Greek, in the form
of amphitheatres, and,-also as the Greek, had an
’orchestra’ directly in front of the stage. In
Greek theatres, this orchestra was a full circle, in
Roman theatres, only an extended semi-circle. The
orchestra of the Theatre of Dionysos at Athens in
Roman days appears to have had a depth of approximately
forty feet, and the stage a v/idth of approximately
fifty-five feet, and a heigl.t of about four feet » The
orchestra was never used by actors in Roman drama but
was at times occupied by more important spectators.
There v/ere steps leading down into the orchestra but
there is no evidence that these were ever used by
actors. The columns supporting the stage were sometimes
decorative.
Costume (see N.R.G ., p.88 ff.)
The evidence for types of theatrical costume is
very unsure. There are scattered references
throughout the actual plays, and these are by far the
most reliable. Otherwise, there are mentions of
costumes in Donatus and other later authors and some
illustrations 5 especially in the manuscripts of
Terence. Men seem to have worn a tunica, over which
freemen wore a long mantle (pallium), and soldiers
(and sometimes young men) a short mantle. Slaves
wore a tunic, often short, and either no pallium or
else the pallium was thrown over a shoulder to
facilitate quick movement as shown in the miniatures
in the manuscripts and as pointed to by Capk. 778f.
The women, whether courtesans or otherwise, all seem
to have worn pallae, which were long flowing garments
equivalent to the men’s pallia. Footwear consisted of
17 7
the flat 30CCUS (’sandal’), as opposed to the
high boot of the tragic stage, the cothurnus.
(Mimes were played barefoot and also unmasked.)
It is the usual belief that in Italy masks were
not worn, except in the Atellan farces, until the end
of the second century B.C. There seems to have been
some confusion, even in ancient times, concerning the
introduction of masks on the stage.
Cicero (de Orat. iii, 221), commenting on the
benefits of facial expression in oratory, says : sed
in ore sunt omnia, in eo autern ipso dominatus est
omnis oculorum: quo melius nostri illi senes qui
personalurn ne Roscium quidem magno opere laudabant.
Diomedes also gives Roscius as the first masked actor,
and adds a reason for his wearing a mask - to hide a
squint. Donatus mentions Cincius Faliscus and
Minucius Prothymus as the first masked actors
(personati - possibly just ’actors’) in comedy and
tragedy respectively; and in another reference,
remarks, with some surprise, on a masked first
performance of Terence’s Eunuchus, thus indicating
that, at least by Donatus’s time, the introduction of
masks on the stage was considered to have taken place
quite late., Pestus mentions a record of a masked
first performance of a play of Naevius.
As Beare has pointed out (’Masks on the Roman
Stage,’ , 1939» xxxiii, 139-146 ), the inference
in the Ciceronian quotation is surely rather that the
older generation had seen Roscius acting sometimes
with, sometimes without a mask. Also, Diomedes may well
have based his statement on one he found in Cicero’s
works, possibly the one quoted above. Donatus had
almost certainly confused two didascaliae for the
17B
Eunuchus, and the masked performance referred to
was in fact not the first perf o.rmance. Pestus, in
an attempt to explain^such an early masked performance,
in all likelihood invented the explanation he gives
that the play had been performed by Atellan actors.
There is every good reason to expect that
masks were worn on the Roman stage. The theatres
were very large indeed, and although they were often
accoustically perfect, it would have been difficult
from the farther seats to have identified by sight
the various characters. And in Plautus’s plays
especially, where so often the whole action depended
on mistaken identity, it is difficult to imagine why
masks, the obvious answer, would not have been
employed. Also, the use of masks would have helped
economize on the number of actors required, as it
would have facilitated the ’doubling’ of roles,
and there is reason to believe that there was a
scarcity of actors in the earlier times.^
1. See footnote' 2, p. 7»
179
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18 2
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ABBREVIATIONS
AJPh.
À n t . Clai
Athen
CT
C l a s s .
American J o u rn a l o f P h i l o l o g y .
SG. L ’ A n t i q u i t é C la s s iq u e .
HSCPh.
NOG
REA
RPh.
TAPhA
Athenaeum.
C l a s s i c a l J o u r n a l.
e t Medo C la s s ic a e t M e d i e v a l ia .
C l a s s i c a l Q u a r t e r l y .
C l a s s i c a l R eview .
C l a s s i c a l W eekly.
E m e r ita .
H arvard S tu d ie s i n C l a s s i c a l P h i l o l o g y .
iT a c h ric h te n von der. G e s e l ls c h a f t der
W is s e n s c h a fte n zu G o ttin g e n .
Revue des Etudes Anciennes.
Revue de P h i l o l o g i e .
T r a n s a c tio n s and P roceedings o f th e American
P h i l o l o g i c a l A s s o c ia t io n .
A .E .P .
E . L . V .
N .R .C .
O .C .T .
S .E .L .
A n c ie n t E d i t i o n s o f P la u tu s (W .M .L in d s a y )
E a r l y L a t i n Verse ( W .M .L in d s a y ) .
N a tu re o f Roman Comedy ( G .E .D u c k w o r th ).
Oxford C l a s s i c a l T e x t.
Syntax o f E a r l y L a t i n ( C . E . B e n n e t t ) .
R. s p e c t a t o r s ’ R i g h t .
L. s p e c t a t o r s ’ L e f t .