Very little is known about Plautus’s life or the productions of his work. The only extant ancient Roman comedies are works written by Plautus and Terence, a playwright who was also a slave. During the time that Plautus was writing, there were no permanent theatres in Rome, as (the first one wasn’t erected until 55 BC in Pompey), so performances occurred in temporary spaces at festivals.

1. Plautus Casina Summary
2. Plautus Menaechmi Summary

• Pseudolus, by Roman playwright Titus Maccius Plautus, was written in 191 BCE. Like other Roman plays, Pseudolus would have been performed in temporary theaters during religious festivals. Though Plautus himself was not born in Rome—little is known about him, but it is thought he was born in the northern Italian town of Sarsina—his plays were remarkably popular.
• Plautus is a truly popular dramatist, whose comic effect springs from exaggeration, burlesque and often coarse humour, rapid action, and a deliberately upside-down portrayal of life, in which slaves give orders to their masters, parents are hoodwinked to the advantage of sons who need money for girls, and the procurer or braggart soldier is outwitted and fails to secure the seduction or possession of the desired.
• Mostellaria is a play by the Roman author Plautus. Its name translates from Latin as The Haunted House (with the word Domus understood in the title). It is a comedy with a very linear plot. It is set in the city of Athens, on a street in front of the houses of Theopropides and Simo.

Curculio, also called The Weevil, is a Latin comedic play for the early Roman theatre by Titus Maccius Plautus. It is the shortest of Plautus's surviving plays.

Plot[edit]

In Curculio, Phaedromus is in love with Planesium, a slave girl belonging to the pimp Cappadox. Phaedromus sends Curculio (a stock parasite character) to borrow money. Unsuccessful, Curculio happens to run into Therapontigonus, a soldier who intends to purchase Planesium. After Curculio learns of his plans, he steals the soldier's ring and returns to Phaedromus. They fake a letter and seal it using the ring. Curculio takes it to the soldier's banker Lyco, tricking him into thinking he was sent by Therapontigonus. Lyco pays Cappadox, under the conditions that the money will be returned if it is later discovered that she is freeborn. Curculio takes the girl back to Phaedromus. When the trick is later discovered, the angry Therapontigonus confronts the others. However, Planesium has discovered from the ring that she is actually Therapontigonus's sister. Since she is freeborn, Therapontigonus is returned his money, and Planesium is allowed to marry Phaedromus.

Translations[edit]

• Henry Thomas Riley, 1912:
• Paul Nixon, 1916-38:
• George E. Duckworth, 1942
• Christopher Stace, 1981
• Henry S. Taylor, 1995
• Amy Richlin, 2005
• Wolfang de Melo, 2011 ^[1]

References[edit]

1. ^Plautus; Translated by Wolfgang de Melo (2011). Plautus, Vol II: Casina; The Casket Comedy; Curculio; Epidicus; The Two Menaechmuses. Loeb Classical Library. ISBN067499678X.

• John E. Thorburn (2005). The Facts On File companion to classical drama. Infobase Publishing. p. 159. ISBN0-8160-5202-6.

External links[edit]

• Curculio (full text) on the Perseus Project, translated by Henry Thomsay Riley.
• Curculio (full text) on the Austin College website. Translation by Paul Nixon.

Plautus Casina Summary

Plautus Menaechmi Summary

Philolaches buys his sweetheart, frees her, and uses up the entirewealth in his father’s absence. When the old man returns,Tranio makes a fool of him: he says that terrible apparitions takeplace in the house and that they moved out long ago. A greedy5moneylender arrives in the meantime, demanding his interest,and again the old man is fooled: the slave says his young mastertook up a loan as deposit for a house. The old man asks whichhouse it is. The slave says it is the one belonging to their nextdoorneighbor. The old man inspects it. Later he is upset that he10was made fun of, but is nevertheless appeased by his son’schum.