PLAU'TUS, Tat s N.'.ccius. The greatest comic poet of ancient Rome. lie was born e.254 BA:. t Sarsina, a village of Umbria. It is proba ble that he came to Rome while still a youth, and there acquired a complete mastery of the Latin language in its most idiomatic form, as well as an extensive familiarity with Greek lit erature. It is uncertain whether he ever ob tained the Roman franchise. His first employ ment was with the actors, in whose ,servic•e lie saved an amount of money sufficient to enable him to leave Rome and commence business on his own account. What the nature of this business n•as, or where he carried it on, we are not in formed; we know, however, that he failed in it, and returned to Rome. where he had to earn his livelihood in the service of a baker, with whom be was engaged in turning a hand-mill. At this time—a few years before the outbreak of the sec ond Punic was probably about 30 years of age; and while employed in his humble occu pation, he composed three plays, which he sold to the managers of the public games. The ccecls enabled him to leave the mill and turn his hand to more congenial work. The commence ment of his literary career may. therefore, be fixed e. 224 B.C., from which date he continued to produce comedies with wonderful fertility, till 184, when he died in his seventieth year.
tif his numerous plays-130 bore his name in the last century of the Republic—only 20 have come down to us. of them, however, were regarded as spurious by the Roman critics, among whom Varro (in his treatise Quwstiones Plautimr, cited by Gellius) limits the genuine comedies of the poet to twenty-one. With the exception of the twenty-first. these Varronian eomedies are the same as those we now possess, Their titles, arranged (with the exception of the Bac•c•hidesl in alphabetieal ordc•r, are as follows: (1) .1mphitryo, (2) .isinaria• (3) Aulularia, (4) Captiri, (5) Carrulio, (6) Casino, (7) Cistella rift, (8) Epidieus, (9) Bacehides, (10) Mostclla ria, (11) Mencrehmi, (12) Miles, (13) Mercator, (14) Pseudo/us, (15) P(rnalos, (16) Persa, (17) L'uden.s, (18) Stich ri.s, (19) Trinu 11111111R , (20)
Trucu/entus, (211 1 'idularia. As a comic writer, Plautus enjoyed immense popularity among the Romans and held possession of the stage down to the time of Diocletian. The vivacity. the hu mor, and the rapid action of his plays, as well as his skill in constructing plots. commanded the admiration of the edueated no less than of the unlettered Romans; while the fact that he was a national poet prepossessed his audiences in his favor. Although he laid the Creek comic drama under heavy contributions, and the plots of Menander, Diphilus, and Philemon with all the license of a modern playwright. he always preserved the style and character native to the Romans and reproduced the life and intellectual tone of the people in a way that at once eon ciliated their sympathies. The admiration in which he was held by his contemporaries descend ed to Cicero and Saint Jerome: while he has found imitators in Shakespeare, Moliere, Dryden, Addison. and Lessing. and translators in most European countries. The best complete transla tion of his works into English is that by Thorn ton and \Varner (5 viols., 1767-74) ; there is an other by Riley (London. 1880), and a partial translation in the original meter, by Sugden (Lon don, 1893). Unfortunately the text of the ex tant plays is in such a very corrupt state, so defective from and so filled with interpo lations, that much yet remains to be done by the grammarian and the commentator before they can h' read with full appreciation or comfort. P,itsehl and his disciples gave the text its first exhaustive recension, on which are based the modern editions. such as those of Ussing (5 vols., Copenhagen, 1875-86) and Goetz and Sehoell (3 vols., Leipzig, 1893-96). Among the many good editions of separate plays, with commentary, may be mentioned those of Brix, Lorenz, Alorris, Palmer, and Tyrrell. Consult Sellar, Roman, Ports of the Republic (Oxford, 1881).