been
correctly
stated by most authors of his life.
William Smith - 1844 - Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities - c
who was one of the consules suffecti in A.
D.
29.
Having soon discovered the dislike cherished by Plautius remained in Britain four years, and sub-
Caracalla towards both his daughter and himself
, dued, after a severe struggle, the southern part of
and looking forward with apprehension to the the island. Vespasian, who was afterwards em-
downfall which awaited him upon the death of the peror, served under him and distinguished himself
sovereign, he resolved to anticipate these threat greatly in the war. In the first campaign Claudius
ened disasters by effecting the destruction of his himself passed over to Britain, and on his return
benefactor and of his son-in-law. His treachery to Rome celebrated a triumph for the victories
was discovered, he was suddenly summoned to which he pretended to have gained. Plautius
the palace, and there put to death in A. D. 203. came back to the city in a. D. 47, and was allowed
His property was confiscated, his daughter ban- by Claudius the unusual honour of an ovation ; and
ished, and his name erased from the public monu- to show the favour in which he was held by the
ments on which it had been inscribed side by side emperor, the latter walked by his side both on his
with those of the emperor and the royal family. way to and his return from the Capitol. When sub-
We onght to remark that the treason of Plautianus sequently his wife Pomponia Graecina was accused
"ests upon the testimony of Herodian, for Dion of religious worship unauthorised by the state, her
Cassius rather leans to the belief that this charge husband was granted the privilege of deciding
was fabricated by Caracalla for the ruin of an upon the case himself, according to the custom of
obnoxious favourite. (Dion Cass. lxxv. 14-16, the old Roman law. (Dion Cass. lx. 19-21, 30;
lxxvi. 2–9, lxxvii. 1; Herodian, iü. 13. $ 7, iv. Suet. Claud. 24, Vesp. 4; Tac. Agr. 14, Ann.
6. $ 7; Eckhel, vol. vii. p. 224. ) [W. R. ) xiii. 32).
PLAUTIANUS, QUINTILLUS, a senator 3. Q. PLAUTIUS, consul A. D. 36 with Sex.
of high rank, blameless life and retired habits, Papirius Allienus. (Dion Cass. lviii. 26 ; Tac.
who when far advanced in years was rashly put to Ann. vi. 40; Plin. H. N. x. 2. )
death by Septimius Severus upon some vague suis- 4. A. PLAUTIUS, a youth slain by Nero. (Suet.
picion. His last words have been preserved by Ner. 35. )
Dion Cassius (lxxvi. 7).
[W. R. ) 5. Son of Fulvius Plautianus (PLAUTIANUS),
PLAUTIL'LA, FU’LVIA, daughter of Plau- upon the downfall of his father was banished along
tianus (PLAUTIANUS) praefect of the praetorium with his sister Plautilla (PLAUTILLA) to Lipara,
under Septimius Severus, by whom she was selected where he was subsequently put to death by Cara-
as the bride of his eldest son. This union, which calla. (Dion Cass. lxxvi. 7, lxxvii. 1 ; Herodian
took place in A. D. 202, proved most unhappy, for vi. 13. $ 7, iv. 6. § 7. )
Caracalla was from the first averse to the match, PLAU'TIUS, a Roman jurist, who is not men-
and even after the marriage was concluded virtually tioned by Pomponius, though he lived before Pom-
refused to acknowledge her as his wife. Upon ponius. That he was a jurist of some note may be
the disgrace and death of her father she was inferred from the fact that Paulus wrote eighteen
banished, first, it would appear, to Sicilt, and | Libri ad Plautium [PAULUS, JULIUS). Jarolenus
subsequently to Lipara, where she was treated also wrote five books ad Plautium or ex Plautio,
with the greatest harshness, and supplied with and Pomponius seven books. Plautius cited Cas-
scarcely the necessaries of life. After the murder sius (Dig. 34. tit. 2. s. 8) and Proculus (Dig. 35.
of Geta in A. D. 212, Plautilla was put to death tit. 1. 8. 43), and was cited by Neratius Priscus,
by order of her husband. According to the who wrote Libri ex Plautio [Neratius Priscus).
narrative of Dion Cassius, who represents her a Plautius therefore lived about the time of Vespa-
woman of most profligate liſe, a very short period, sian. (Grotius, Vitue Jurisconsult. ; Zimmern,
not more, probably, than a few months, intervened | Geschichte des Röm. Privatrechts, p. 322 ; Vatican.
## p. 407 (#423) ############################################
PLAUTUS
407
PLAUTUS.
U'TIUS
Frag. $ 74, 82 ; and $ 77, which is a testimony | such a kind was called an operarius, as we see
to the merits of Plautius ; Wieling, Jurispru- from funeral inscriptions. Moreover, if Plautus
dentia Restituta, p. 338. )
(G. L. ] had previously written plays for the stage, which
PLAUTIUS LATERA'NUS. [LATERA- must have already gained him some reputation, it
NUB. )
is not likely that he should have been compelled on
PLAU'TIUS, NOʻVIUS, a Roman artist, in the his return to Rome to engage in the menial office
department of ornamental metal-work (caelutura). of a grinder at a mill for the sake of obtaining a
He was the maker of one of the most admired of livelihood. On the contrary, it is much more pro-
those cylindrical bronze caskets (cistae mysticae), bable that the comedies which he composed in the
which are found in combs in Italy, containing pa- mill, were the first that he ever wrote, and that the
terae, mirrors, and utensils of the bath, such as reputation and money which he acquired by them
strigils. The greatest number of such caskets have enabled him to abandon his menial mode of life.
been found at Praeneste, where some of them sccm The age of Plautus has been a subject of no
to have been laid up in the temple of Fortune, as small controversy. Cicero says (Brut. 15) that he
votive offerings from women. The one which bears died in the consulship of P. Claudius and L. Por-
the name of Plautius is beautifully engraved with cius, when Cato was consor, that is, in v. c. 184 ;
subjects from the Argonautic expedition ; a hunt and there is no reason to doubt this express state
is engraved round the lid, which is surmounted by ment. It is true that Hieronymus, in the Chro
three figures in bronze ; and on the lid is the fol. nicon of Eusebius, places bis death in the 145th
lowing inscription : on the one side, DINDIA. MA- Olympiad, fourteen years earlier (B. C. 200) ; but
COLINA . FILEA. DEDIT,-on the other, Novios. the dates of Hieronymus are frequently erroneous,
PLAUTIOS. MED. (me) ROMAI. FECID. From the and this one in particular deserves all the less credit,
style of the workmanship and of the inscription, since we know that the Pseudolus was not repre-
the date of the artist is supposed to be about A. U. sented till B. c. 191, and the Bacchides somewhat
500, B. c. 254. (Winckelmann, Gesch. d. Kunst, later, according to the probable supposition of
b. viii. c. 4. $ 7; Müller, Arch. d. Kunst, § 173, n. Ritschl. But though the date of Plantus's death
4. )
[P. S. ) seems certain, the time of his birth is a more
PLAUẤTIUS QUINTILLUS. (QUINTIL- doubtful point. Ritschl, who has examined the
LUS. )
subject with great diligence and acumen in his
PLAU'TIUS RUFUS. [RUFUS. ]
essay De Aetate Plauti, supposes that he was born
PLAUTUS, the most celebrated comic poet of about the beginning of the sixth century of the
Rome, was a native of Sarsina, a small village in city (about B. C. 254), and that he commenced
Umbria. Almost the only particulars, which we his career as a comic poet about B. c. 224, when he
possess respecting his life, are contained in a pas- was thirty years of age. This supposition is con-
sage of A. Gellius (iii. 3), which is quoted from firmed by the fact that Cicero speaks (Cato, 14)
Varro. According to this account it would appear of the Pseudolus, which was acted in B. c. 191, as
that Plautus was of. humble origin (compare Plar written by Plautus when he was an old man, an epi-
tinae prosupiae homo, Minuc. Felix, Oct. 14), and thet which Cicero would certainly have given to no
that he came to Rome at an early age. Varro re- one under thirty years of age ; and also by the
lated that the poet was first employed as a work circumstance that in another passage of Cicero
man or a menial for the actors on the stage (in (quoted by Augustine, De Civ. Dei, ii. 9), Plautus
operis artificum scenicorum), and that with the and Naevius are spoken of as the contemporaries of
money which he earned in this way, he embarked P. and Cn. Scipio, of whom the former was consul
in some business, but that having lost all his money in B. C. 222, and the latter in B. c. 218. The
in trade, he returned to Rome, and, in order to principal objection to the above mentioned date for
gain a living, was obliged to work at a hand-mill
, the birth of Plautus, arises from a passage of Cicero,
grinding corn for a baker. Varro further adds in his Tusculan Disputations (i. 1), according to
that while employed in this work (in pistrino), he which it would appear that Plautus and Naevius
wrote three comedies, the Saturio, Addictus, and a were younger than Ennius, who was born in B. C.
third, of which the name is not mentioned. Hiero- | 239. But we know that this cannot be true of
nymus, in the Chronicon Eusebius, gives almost Naevius ; and Ritschl has shown that the passage,
the same account, which he probably also derived when rightly interpreted, refers to Livius, and not
from Varto. It would seem that it was only for to Ennius, being older than Naevius and Plautus,
the sake of varying the narrative that he wrote Indeed, Cicero, in another of his works (Brut. 18.
" that as often as Plautus had leisure, he was ac- $ 23),* makes Plautus somewhat (aliquanto) older
customed to write plays and sell them. "
than Ennius, and states that Naevius and Plautus
This is all that we know for certain respecting bad exhibited many plays before the consulship of
the life of Plautus ; but even this little has not C. Cornelius and Q. Minucius, that is, before B. C.
been correctly stated by most authors of his life. 197. Moreover, from the way in which Naevius
Thus Lessing, in his life of the poet, relates that and Plautus are mentioned together, we may con-
Plautus early commenced writing plays for the clude that the latter was older than Ennius. Te
aediles, and acquired thereby a sufficient sum of rence, therefore, in his Prologue to the Andria (v.
money to enable him to embark in business. It is 18), has preserved the chronological order, when
the more necessary to call attention to this error, he speaks of “ Naevium, Plautum, Ennium. ” We
since, from the great authority of Lessing, it has may safely assign the second Punic war and a few
been repeated in most subsequent biographies of the years subsequently, as the flourishing period of the
poet. The words of Gellius, in operis artifuum literary life of Plautus.
scenicorum, have no reference to the composition of It is a curious fact that the full name of the
plays. The artifices scenici are the actors, who
employed servants to attend to various things • Read “cui si aequalis fuerit," and not “cui
which they needed for the stage, and a servant of I quum aequalis fuerit. ”
了
## p. 408 (#424) ############################################
408
PLAUTUS.
PLAUTUS.
i
poet has been erroneously given in all editions | at Rome he was in needy circumstances, and
of Plautus from the revival of learning down was first employed in the service of the actors.
to the present day. Ritschl first pointed out, With the money he had saved in this inferior
in an essay published in 1842, that the real name station he left Rome and set up in business :
of the poet was T. Maccius Plautus, and not M. but his speculations failed ; he returned to Rome,
Accius Plautus, as we find in all printed editions. and his necessities obliged him to enter the
It would take too much space to copy the proofs of service of a baker, who employed him in turning a
this fact, which are perfectly satisfactory. We hand-mill. While in this degrading occupation
need only state here that in not a single manuscript he wrote three plays, the sale of which to the
is the poet called M. Accius Plautus, but almost managers of the public games enabled him to quit
always Plautus simply, Plautus Comicus, or Plautus his drudgery, and begin his literary career. He
Comicus Poeta. Ritschl was first led to the discovery was then probably about 30 years of age (B. C.
of the real name of the poet by finding, in the Pa 224), and accordingly commenced writing come
limpsest manuscript in the Ambrosian library at dies a few years before the breaking out of the
Milan, the plays entitled T. Macci PLAVTI, and Second Punic War. He continued his literary
not M. Acci Plauti
. He has shown that the two occupation for about forty years, and died B. Ć.
names of M. Accius have been manufactured out of 184, when he was seventy years of age. His
the one of Maccius, just as the converse has hap- contemporaries at first were Livius Andronicus and
pened to the author of the Noctes Atticae, whose Naevius, afterwards Ennius and Caecilius: Te-
two names of A. Gellius have been frequently con- rence did not rise into notice till almost twenty
tracted into Agellius. Ritschl has restored the years after his death. During the long time that
true name of the poet in the prologies to two of he held possession of the stage, he was always a
his plays, where the present reading bears evident great favourite of the people ; and he expressed a
marks of corruption. Thus in the prologue to the bold consciousness of his own powers in the epitaph
Mercator (v. 10), we ought to read “ Eadem which he wrote for his tomb, and which has been
Latine Mercator Macci Titi," instead of “ Eadem preserved by A. Gellius (i. 24):-
Latine Mercator Marci Accii ;” and in the prologue “ Postquam est mortem aptus Plautus, comoedia
to the Asinaria (v. 11), Demophilus scripsit,
luget
Macciu' vortit barbare" is the true reading, and
Scena deserta, dein risus, ludus jocusque
not “ Demophilus scripsit, Marcus vortit barbare. "
Et numeri innumeri simul omnes collacrumarunt. "
T. Maccius was the original name of the poet.
The surname of Plautus was given him from the We now come to the works of Plautus. In the
flatness of his feet, according to the testimony of time of Varro there were 130 plays, which bore
Festus (p. 238, ed. Müller), who further states the name of Plautus, but of these a large portion
that people with flat feet were called Ploti by the was considered by the best Roman critics not to
Umbrians. But besides Plautus we find another be the genuine productions of the poet. Some of
surname given to the poet in many manuscripts them were written by a poet of the name of
and several editions, namely, that of Asinius. In Plautius, the resemblance of whose name to that
all these instances, however, he is always called of the great comic poet caused them to be attri-
Plautus Asinius, never Asinius Plautus, so that it buted to the latter. Others were said to have
would appear that Asinius was not regarded as his been written by more ancient poets, but to have
gentile name, but as a cognomen. Hence some been retouched and improved by Plautus, and
modern writers hare supposed that he had two hence from their presenting some traces of the
cognomens, and that the surname of Asinus was genuine style of Plautus, to have been assigned
given to him in contempt, from the fact of his to him. The grammarian L. Aelius considered
working at a mill, which was usually the work of twenty-five only to have been the genuine pro-
an ass ( Asinus), and that this surname was changed ductions of the poet ; and Varro, who wrote a
by the copyists into Asinius. But this explana- work upon the subject, entitled Quaestiones Plaz-
tion of the origin of the surname is in itself ex- tinae, limited the undoubted comedies of the poet
ceedingly improbable; and if Asinius were a regu- to twenty-one, which were hence called the
lar cognomen of the poet, it is inconceivable that Fabulae Varronianae. At the same time it ap-
we should find no mention of it in any of the pears clearly from A. Gellius (iii. 3), to whom
ancient writers. Ritschl, however, has pointed we are indebted for these particulars, that Varro
out the true origin of the name, and has proved looked upon other comedies as in all probability
quite satisfactorily, however improbable the state the works of Plautus, though they did not possess
ment appears at first sight, that Asinius is a the same amount of testimony in their favour as
corruption of Sarsinas, the ethnic name of the poet. the twenty-one. Ritschl, in his admirable essay
He has, by a careful examination of manuscripts, on the Fabulae l'arronianae of Plautus, published
traced the steps by which Sarsinatis first became in 1843 and 1844, supposes, with much proba-
Arsinatis, which was then written Arsin. , subse- bility, that Varro divided the genuine comedies of
quently Arsinii, and finally A sinii.
Plautus into three classes: 1. Those which were
Having thus discussed the chief points con- assigned to Plautus in all the authorities that
nected with the life of our poet, we may sum up the Varro consulted. These were the twenty-one,
results in a few words. T. Maccius Plautus was all of which were probably written in the latter
born at the Umbrian village of Sarsina, about B. c. years of the poet's life, when he had already ac-
254. He probably came to Rome at an early age, quired a great reputation, and when, consequently,
since he displays such a perfect mastery of the every piece that he produced was sure to attract
Latin language, and an acquaintance with Greek attention, and to be entered in the didascaliae or
literature, which he could hardly have acquired in lists of his pieces. 2. Those comedies which
a provincial town. Whether he ever obtained the were attributed to Plautus in most of the authori-
Roman franchise is doubtful. When he arrived | ties, and which appeared to Varro to bear internal
1
1
1
1
e
3
## p. 409 (#425) ############################################
PLAUTUS.
409
PLAUTUS.
evidence of having been composed by him. 3. of Varro already mentioned, which was the stan-
Those which were not assigned to Plautus by the dard work on the subject, A. Gellius (1. c. ) also
authorities, or were even attributed to other refers to lists of his comedies drawn up by Aelius,
writers, but which appeared to Varro to have such Sedigitus, Claudius, Aurelius, Accius, and Mani-
internal evidence in their favour (adductus filo lius.
atque facetia sermonis Pluuto congruentis), that he After the publication of Varro's work, the
did not hesitate to regard them as the genuine twenty-one comedies, which he regarded as un-
works of the poet. To this third clubs, which questionably genuine, were the ones most fre-
naturally contained but few, the Boeotia belonged. quently used, and of which copies were chiefly
There is a statement of Servius in the introduc preserved. These Varronian comedies are the
tion to his commentary on the Aeneid, that ac- same as those which have come down to our own
cording to some, Plautus wrote twenty-one, accord- time, with the loss of one. At present we possess
ing to others forty, and, according to others again, only twenty comedies of Plautus; but there were
a hundred comedies. Ritschl supposes, with great originally i wenty-one in the manuscripts, and the
ingenuity, that the forty comedies, to which Ser- Vidularic, which was the twenty-first, and which
vius alludes, were those which Varro regarded as came last in the collection, was torn off from the
genuine, the twenty-one, which were called pre- manuscript in the middle ages. The last-men-
eminently Varronianae, belonging to the first class, tioned play was extant in the time of Priscian,
spoken of above, and the other nineteen being who was only acquainted with the twenty-one
coinprised in the second and third classes.
Varronian plays. The ancient Codex of Camerarius
In order to understand clearly the difficulties has at the conclusion of the Truculentus the words
which the Roman critics experienced in determin- incipit vidvlaria; and the Milan Palimpsest also
ing which were the genuine plays of Plautus, we contains several lines from the Vidularia.
should bear in mind the circumstances under which The titles of the twenty-one Varronian plays,
they were composed. Like the dramas of Shak- of which, as we have already remarked, twenty
spere and Lope de Vega they were written for the are still extant, are: 1. Amphitruo. 2. Asinaria.
stage, and not for the reading public. Such a 3. Aulularia. 4. Captivi. 5. Curculio. 6. Casina.
public, in fact, did not exist at the time of Plautus. | 7. Cistellaria. 8. Epidicus. 9. Bacchides. 10. Mos-
His plays were produced for representation at the tellaria. 11. Menaechmi. 12. Miles. 13. Mer-
great public games, and, content with the applause cator. 14. Pseudolus. 15. Poenulus. 16. Persa.
of his contemporaries and the pay which he re- 17. Rudens. 18, Stichus. 19. Trinummus. 20.
ceived, he did not care for the subsequent fate of Truculentus. 21. Vidularia. This is the order in
his works. A few patrons of literature, such as the which they occur in the manuscripts, though pro-
Scipios, may have preserved copies of the works; bably not the one in which they were originally
but the chief inducement to their preservation arranged by Varro. The present order is evidently
was the interest of the managers of the different alphabetical ; the initial letter of the title of each
troops of actors, the domini gregis
, who had origin- play is alone regarded, and no attention is paid to
ally engaged the poet to write the comedies, and had those which follow: hence we find Captivi
, Cur-
paid him for them, and to whom the manuscripts culio, Casina, Cistellaria : Mostellaria, Menaechmi,
accordingly belonged. It was the interest of these Miles, Mercator : Pseudolus, Poenulus, Persa.
persons to preserve the manuscripts, since they The play of the Bacchides forms the only exception
were not always obliged to bring forth new pieces, to the alphabetical order. It was probably placed
but were frequently paid by the magistrates for after the Epidicus by some copyist, because he had
the representation of plays that had been previously observed that Plautus, in the Bacchides (ii. 2. 36),
acted. That the plays of Plautus were performed referred to the Epidicus as an earlier work. The
after his death is stated in several authorities, and alphabetical arrangement is attributed by many to
may be seen even from some of the prologues (e. g. Priscian, to whom is also assigned the short acrostic
the Prologue to the Casina). But when, towards argument prefixed to each play; but there is no cer-
the middle of the sixth century of the city, one tainty on this point, and the Latinity of the acrostic
dramatic poet arose after another, and the taste for arguments is too pure to have been composed 50
stricter imitations from the Greek began to pre- late as the time of Priscian. The names of the
vail, the comedies of Plautus gradually fell into comedies are either taken from some leading cha.
neglect, and consequently the contractors for the racter in the play, or from some circumstance which
public games ceased to care about their preserva- occurs in it: those titles ending in aria are adjec-
tion. Towards the latter end of the century, how- tives, giving a general description of the play: thus
ever, no new comic poets appeared ; and since new Asinuria is the “ Ass-Comedy. " Besides these
comedies ceased to be brought before the public, twenty-one plays we have already remarked, that
attention was naturally recalled to the older Varro, according to Ritschl's conjecture, regarded
dramas. In this manner Plautus began to be nineteen others as the genuine productions of Plau-
popular again, and his comedies were again fre- tus, though not supported by an equal amount of
quently brought upon the stage. Owing, how- testimony as the twenty-one. Ritschl has collected
ever, to the neglect which his works had sustained, from various authorities the titles of these nineteen
it would appear that doubts had arisen respecting plays. They are as follows : 22. Saturio. 23. Ad-
the genuineness of many of his plays, and that dictus. 24. Boeotia. 25. Nervolaria. 26. Fretum.
several were produced under his name, of which 27. Trigemini. 28. Astraba. 29. Parasitus niger.
the authorship was at least uncertain. Thus the 30. Parusitus medicus. 31. Commorientes. 32. Con-
grammarians, who began to draw up lists of his dalium. 33. Gemini leones. 34. Foeneratrix.
plays in the seventh century of the city, had no 35. Frivolaria 36. Sitellitergus. 37. Fugitivi, 38.
small difficulties to encounter; and the question re-
i
Cacistio. 39. Hortulus. 40. Artemo. of the still
specting the genuineness of certain plays was a larger number of comedies commonly ascribed to
fertile subject of controversy. Besides the treatise Plautus, but not recognised by Varro, the titles of
## p. 410 (#426) ############################################
410
PLAUTUS.
PLAUTUS.
66
only a few have been preserved. They are: the new Attic comedy whom Plautus took as his
à. Colax.
Having soon discovered the dislike cherished by Plautius remained in Britain four years, and sub-
Caracalla towards both his daughter and himself
, dued, after a severe struggle, the southern part of
and looking forward with apprehension to the the island. Vespasian, who was afterwards em-
downfall which awaited him upon the death of the peror, served under him and distinguished himself
sovereign, he resolved to anticipate these threat greatly in the war. In the first campaign Claudius
ened disasters by effecting the destruction of his himself passed over to Britain, and on his return
benefactor and of his son-in-law. His treachery to Rome celebrated a triumph for the victories
was discovered, he was suddenly summoned to which he pretended to have gained. Plautius
the palace, and there put to death in A. D. 203. came back to the city in a. D. 47, and was allowed
His property was confiscated, his daughter ban- by Claudius the unusual honour of an ovation ; and
ished, and his name erased from the public monu- to show the favour in which he was held by the
ments on which it had been inscribed side by side emperor, the latter walked by his side both on his
with those of the emperor and the royal family. way to and his return from the Capitol. When sub-
We onght to remark that the treason of Plautianus sequently his wife Pomponia Graecina was accused
"ests upon the testimony of Herodian, for Dion of religious worship unauthorised by the state, her
Cassius rather leans to the belief that this charge husband was granted the privilege of deciding
was fabricated by Caracalla for the ruin of an upon the case himself, according to the custom of
obnoxious favourite. (Dion Cass. lxxv. 14-16, the old Roman law. (Dion Cass. lx. 19-21, 30;
lxxvi. 2–9, lxxvii. 1; Herodian, iü. 13. $ 7, iv. Suet. Claud. 24, Vesp. 4; Tac. Agr. 14, Ann.
6. $ 7; Eckhel, vol. vii. p. 224. ) [W. R. ) xiii. 32).
PLAUTIANUS, QUINTILLUS, a senator 3. Q. PLAUTIUS, consul A. D. 36 with Sex.
of high rank, blameless life and retired habits, Papirius Allienus. (Dion Cass. lviii. 26 ; Tac.
who when far advanced in years was rashly put to Ann. vi. 40; Plin. H. N. x. 2. )
death by Septimius Severus upon some vague suis- 4. A. PLAUTIUS, a youth slain by Nero. (Suet.
picion. His last words have been preserved by Ner. 35. )
Dion Cassius (lxxvi. 7).
[W. R. ) 5. Son of Fulvius Plautianus (PLAUTIANUS),
PLAUTIL'LA, FU’LVIA, daughter of Plau- upon the downfall of his father was banished along
tianus (PLAUTIANUS) praefect of the praetorium with his sister Plautilla (PLAUTILLA) to Lipara,
under Septimius Severus, by whom she was selected where he was subsequently put to death by Cara-
as the bride of his eldest son. This union, which calla. (Dion Cass. lxxvi. 7, lxxvii. 1 ; Herodian
took place in A. D. 202, proved most unhappy, for vi. 13. $ 7, iv. 6. § 7. )
Caracalla was from the first averse to the match, PLAU'TIUS, a Roman jurist, who is not men-
and even after the marriage was concluded virtually tioned by Pomponius, though he lived before Pom-
refused to acknowledge her as his wife. Upon ponius. That he was a jurist of some note may be
the disgrace and death of her father she was inferred from the fact that Paulus wrote eighteen
banished, first, it would appear, to Sicilt, and | Libri ad Plautium [PAULUS, JULIUS). Jarolenus
subsequently to Lipara, where she was treated also wrote five books ad Plautium or ex Plautio,
with the greatest harshness, and supplied with and Pomponius seven books. Plautius cited Cas-
scarcely the necessaries of life. After the murder sius (Dig. 34. tit. 2. s. 8) and Proculus (Dig. 35.
of Geta in A. D. 212, Plautilla was put to death tit. 1. 8. 43), and was cited by Neratius Priscus,
by order of her husband. According to the who wrote Libri ex Plautio [Neratius Priscus).
narrative of Dion Cassius, who represents her a Plautius therefore lived about the time of Vespa-
woman of most profligate liſe, a very short period, sian. (Grotius, Vitue Jurisconsult. ; Zimmern,
not more, probably, than a few months, intervened | Geschichte des Röm. Privatrechts, p. 322 ; Vatican.
## p. 407 (#423) ############################################
PLAUTUS
407
PLAUTUS.
U'TIUS
Frag. $ 74, 82 ; and $ 77, which is a testimony | such a kind was called an operarius, as we see
to the merits of Plautius ; Wieling, Jurispru- from funeral inscriptions. Moreover, if Plautus
dentia Restituta, p. 338. )
(G. L. ] had previously written plays for the stage, which
PLAUTIUS LATERA'NUS. [LATERA- must have already gained him some reputation, it
NUB. )
is not likely that he should have been compelled on
PLAU'TIUS, NOʻVIUS, a Roman artist, in the his return to Rome to engage in the menial office
department of ornamental metal-work (caelutura). of a grinder at a mill for the sake of obtaining a
He was the maker of one of the most admired of livelihood. On the contrary, it is much more pro-
those cylindrical bronze caskets (cistae mysticae), bable that the comedies which he composed in the
which are found in combs in Italy, containing pa- mill, were the first that he ever wrote, and that the
terae, mirrors, and utensils of the bath, such as reputation and money which he acquired by them
strigils. The greatest number of such caskets have enabled him to abandon his menial mode of life.
been found at Praeneste, where some of them sccm The age of Plautus has been a subject of no
to have been laid up in the temple of Fortune, as small controversy. Cicero says (Brut. 15) that he
votive offerings from women. The one which bears died in the consulship of P. Claudius and L. Por-
the name of Plautius is beautifully engraved with cius, when Cato was consor, that is, in v. c. 184 ;
subjects from the Argonautic expedition ; a hunt and there is no reason to doubt this express state
is engraved round the lid, which is surmounted by ment. It is true that Hieronymus, in the Chro
three figures in bronze ; and on the lid is the fol. nicon of Eusebius, places bis death in the 145th
lowing inscription : on the one side, DINDIA. MA- Olympiad, fourteen years earlier (B. C. 200) ; but
COLINA . FILEA. DEDIT,-on the other, Novios. the dates of Hieronymus are frequently erroneous,
PLAUTIOS. MED. (me) ROMAI. FECID. From the and this one in particular deserves all the less credit,
style of the workmanship and of the inscription, since we know that the Pseudolus was not repre-
the date of the artist is supposed to be about A. U. sented till B. c. 191, and the Bacchides somewhat
500, B. c. 254. (Winckelmann, Gesch. d. Kunst, later, according to the probable supposition of
b. viii. c. 4. $ 7; Müller, Arch. d. Kunst, § 173, n. Ritschl. But though the date of Plantus's death
4. )
[P. S. ) seems certain, the time of his birth is a more
PLAUẤTIUS QUINTILLUS. (QUINTIL- doubtful point. Ritschl, who has examined the
LUS. )
subject with great diligence and acumen in his
PLAU'TIUS RUFUS. [RUFUS. ]
essay De Aetate Plauti, supposes that he was born
PLAUTUS, the most celebrated comic poet of about the beginning of the sixth century of the
Rome, was a native of Sarsina, a small village in city (about B. C. 254), and that he commenced
Umbria. Almost the only particulars, which we his career as a comic poet about B. c. 224, when he
possess respecting his life, are contained in a pas- was thirty years of age. This supposition is con-
sage of A. Gellius (iii. 3), which is quoted from firmed by the fact that Cicero speaks (Cato, 14)
Varro. According to this account it would appear of the Pseudolus, which was acted in B. c. 191, as
that Plautus was of. humble origin (compare Plar written by Plautus when he was an old man, an epi-
tinae prosupiae homo, Minuc. Felix, Oct. 14), and thet which Cicero would certainly have given to no
that he came to Rome at an early age. Varro re- one under thirty years of age ; and also by the
lated that the poet was first employed as a work circumstance that in another passage of Cicero
man or a menial for the actors on the stage (in (quoted by Augustine, De Civ. Dei, ii. 9), Plautus
operis artificum scenicorum), and that with the and Naevius are spoken of as the contemporaries of
money which he earned in this way, he embarked P. and Cn. Scipio, of whom the former was consul
in some business, but that having lost all his money in B. C. 222, and the latter in B. c. 218. The
in trade, he returned to Rome, and, in order to principal objection to the above mentioned date for
gain a living, was obliged to work at a hand-mill
, the birth of Plautus, arises from a passage of Cicero,
grinding corn for a baker. Varro further adds in his Tusculan Disputations (i. 1), according to
that while employed in this work (in pistrino), he which it would appear that Plautus and Naevius
wrote three comedies, the Saturio, Addictus, and a were younger than Ennius, who was born in B. C.
third, of which the name is not mentioned. Hiero- | 239. But we know that this cannot be true of
nymus, in the Chronicon Eusebius, gives almost Naevius ; and Ritschl has shown that the passage,
the same account, which he probably also derived when rightly interpreted, refers to Livius, and not
from Varto. It would seem that it was only for to Ennius, being older than Naevius and Plautus,
the sake of varying the narrative that he wrote Indeed, Cicero, in another of his works (Brut. 18.
" that as often as Plautus had leisure, he was ac- $ 23),* makes Plautus somewhat (aliquanto) older
customed to write plays and sell them. "
than Ennius, and states that Naevius and Plautus
This is all that we know for certain respecting bad exhibited many plays before the consulship of
the life of Plautus ; but even this little has not C. Cornelius and Q. Minucius, that is, before B. C.
been correctly stated by most authors of his life. 197. Moreover, from the way in which Naevius
Thus Lessing, in his life of the poet, relates that and Plautus are mentioned together, we may con-
Plautus early commenced writing plays for the clude that the latter was older than Ennius. Te
aediles, and acquired thereby a sufficient sum of rence, therefore, in his Prologue to the Andria (v.
money to enable him to embark in business. It is 18), has preserved the chronological order, when
the more necessary to call attention to this error, he speaks of “ Naevium, Plautum, Ennium. ” We
since, from the great authority of Lessing, it has may safely assign the second Punic war and a few
been repeated in most subsequent biographies of the years subsequently, as the flourishing period of the
poet. The words of Gellius, in operis artifuum literary life of Plautus.
scenicorum, have no reference to the composition of It is a curious fact that the full name of the
plays. The artifices scenici are the actors, who
employed servants to attend to various things • Read “cui si aequalis fuerit," and not “cui
which they needed for the stage, and a servant of I quum aequalis fuerit. ”
了
## p. 408 (#424) ############################################
408
PLAUTUS.
PLAUTUS.
i
poet has been erroneously given in all editions | at Rome he was in needy circumstances, and
of Plautus from the revival of learning down was first employed in the service of the actors.
to the present day. Ritschl first pointed out, With the money he had saved in this inferior
in an essay published in 1842, that the real name station he left Rome and set up in business :
of the poet was T. Maccius Plautus, and not M. but his speculations failed ; he returned to Rome,
Accius Plautus, as we find in all printed editions. and his necessities obliged him to enter the
It would take too much space to copy the proofs of service of a baker, who employed him in turning a
this fact, which are perfectly satisfactory. We hand-mill. While in this degrading occupation
need only state here that in not a single manuscript he wrote three plays, the sale of which to the
is the poet called M. Accius Plautus, but almost managers of the public games enabled him to quit
always Plautus simply, Plautus Comicus, or Plautus his drudgery, and begin his literary career. He
Comicus Poeta. Ritschl was first led to the discovery was then probably about 30 years of age (B. C.
of the real name of the poet by finding, in the Pa 224), and accordingly commenced writing come
limpsest manuscript in the Ambrosian library at dies a few years before the breaking out of the
Milan, the plays entitled T. Macci PLAVTI, and Second Punic War. He continued his literary
not M. Acci Plauti
. He has shown that the two occupation for about forty years, and died B. Ć.
names of M. Accius have been manufactured out of 184, when he was seventy years of age. His
the one of Maccius, just as the converse has hap- contemporaries at first were Livius Andronicus and
pened to the author of the Noctes Atticae, whose Naevius, afterwards Ennius and Caecilius: Te-
two names of A. Gellius have been frequently con- rence did not rise into notice till almost twenty
tracted into Agellius. Ritschl has restored the years after his death. During the long time that
true name of the poet in the prologies to two of he held possession of the stage, he was always a
his plays, where the present reading bears evident great favourite of the people ; and he expressed a
marks of corruption. Thus in the prologue to the bold consciousness of his own powers in the epitaph
Mercator (v. 10), we ought to read “ Eadem which he wrote for his tomb, and which has been
Latine Mercator Macci Titi," instead of “ Eadem preserved by A. Gellius (i. 24):-
Latine Mercator Marci Accii ;” and in the prologue “ Postquam est mortem aptus Plautus, comoedia
to the Asinaria (v. 11), Demophilus scripsit,
luget
Macciu' vortit barbare" is the true reading, and
Scena deserta, dein risus, ludus jocusque
not “ Demophilus scripsit, Marcus vortit barbare. "
Et numeri innumeri simul omnes collacrumarunt. "
T. Maccius was the original name of the poet.
The surname of Plautus was given him from the We now come to the works of Plautus. In the
flatness of his feet, according to the testimony of time of Varro there were 130 plays, which bore
Festus (p. 238, ed. Müller), who further states the name of Plautus, but of these a large portion
that people with flat feet were called Ploti by the was considered by the best Roman critics not to
Umbrians. But besides Plautus we find another be the genuine productions of the poet. Some of
surname given to the poet in many manuscripts them were written by a poet of the name of
and several editions, namely, that of Asinius. In Plautius, the resemblance of whose name to that
all these instances, however, he is always called of the great comic poet caused them to be attri-
Plautus Asinius, never Asinius Plautus, so that it buted to the latter. Others were said to have
would appear that Asinius was not regarded as his been written by more ancient poets, but to have
gentile name, but as a cognomen. Hence some been retouched and improved by Plautus, and
modern writers hare supposed that he had two hence from their presenting some traces of the
cognomens, and that the surname of Asinus was genuine style of Plautus, to have been assigned
given to him in contempt, from the fact of his to him. The grammarian L. Aelius considered
working at a mill, which was usually the work of twenty-five only to have been the genuine pro-
an ass ( Asinus), and that this surname was changed ductions of the poet ; and Varro, who wrote a
by the copyists into Asinius. But this explana- work upon the subject, entitled Quaestiones Plaz-
tion of the origin of the surname is in itself ex- tinae, limited the undoubted comedies of the poet
ceedingly improbable; and if Asinius were a regu- to twenty-one, which were hence called the
lar cognomen of the poet, it is inconceivable that Fabulae Varronianae. At the same time it ap-
we should find no mention of it in any of the pears clearly from A. Gellius (iii. 3), to whom
ancient writers. Ritschl, however, has pointed we are indebted for these particulars, that Varro
out the true origin of the name, and has proved looked upon other comedies as in all probability
quite satisfactorily, however improbable the state the works of Plautus, though they did not possess
ment appears at first sight, that Asinius is a the same amount of testimony in their favour as
corruption of Sarsinas, the ethnic name of the poet. the twenty-one. Ritschl, in his admirable essay
He has, by a careful examination of manuscripts, on the Fabulae l'arronianae of Plautus, published
traced the steps by which Sarsinatis first became in 1843 and 1844, supposes, with much proba-
Arsinatis, which was then written Arsin. , subse- bility, that Varro divided the genuine comedies of
quently Arsinii, and finally A sinii.
Plautus into three classes: 1. Those which were
Having thus discussed the chief points con- assigned to Plautus in all the authorities that
nected with the life of our poet, we may sum up the Varro consulted. These were the twenty-one,
results in a few words. T. Maccius Plautus was all of which were probably written in the latter
born at the Umbrian village of Sarsina, about B. c. years of the poet's life, when he had already ac-
254. He probably came to Rome at an early age, quired a great reputation, and when, consequently,
since he displays such a perfect mastery of the every piece that he produced was sure to attract
Latin language, and an acquaintance with Greek attention, and to be entered in the didascaliae or
literature, which he could hardly have acquired in lists of his pieces. 2. Those comedies which
a provincial town. Whether he ever obtained the were attributed to Plautus in most of the authori-
Roman franchise is doubtful. When he arrived | ties, and which appeared to Varro to bear internal
1
1
1
1
e
3
## p. 409 (#425) ############################################
PLAUTUS.
409
PLAUTUS.
evidence of having been composed by him. 3. of Varro already mentioned, which was the stan-
Those which were not assigned to Plautus by the dard work on the subject, A. Gellius (1. c. ) also
authorities, or were even attributed to other refers to lists of his comedies drawn up by Aelius,
writers, but which appeared to Varro to have such Sedigitus, Claudius, Aurelius, Accius, and Mani-
internal evidence in their favour (adductus filo lius.
atque facetia sermonis Pluuto congruentis), that he After the publication of Varro's work, the
did not hesitate to regard them as the genuine twenty-one comedies, which he regarded as un-
works of the poet. To this third clubs, which questionably genuine, were the ones most fre-
naturally contained but few, the Boeotia belonged. quently used, and of which copies were chiefly
There is a statement of Servius in the introduc preserved. These Varronian comedies are the
tion to his commentary on the Aeneid, that ac- same as those which have come down to our own
cording to some, Plautus wrote twenty-one, accord- time, with the loss of one. At present we possess
ing to others forty, and, according to others again, only twenty comedies of Plautus; but there were
a hundred comedies. Ritschl supposes, with great originally i wenty-one in the manuscripts, and the
ingenuity, that the forty comedies, to which Ser- Vidularic, which was the twenty-first, and which
vius alludes, were those which Varro regarded as came last in the collection, was torn off from the
genuine, the twenty-one, which were called pre- manuscript in the middle ages. The last-men-
eminently Varronianae, belonging to the first class, tioned play was extant in the time of Priscian,
spoken of above, and the other nineteen being who was only acquainted with the twenty-one
coinprised in the second and third classes.
Varronian plays. The ancient Codex of Camerarius
In order to understand clearly the difficulties has at the conclusion of the Truculentus the words
which the Roman critics experienced in determin- incipit vidvlaria; and the Milan Palimpsest also
ing which were the genuine plays of Plautus, we contains several lines from the Vidularia.
should bear in mind the circumstances under which The titles of the twenty-one Varronian plays,
they were composed. Like the dramas of Shak- of which, as we have already remarked, twenty
spere and Lope de Vega they were written for the are still extant, are: 1. Amphitruo. 2. Asinaria.
stage, and not for the reading public. Such a 3. Aulularia. 4. Captivi. 5. Curculio. 6. Casina.
public, in fact, did not exist at the time of Plautus. | 7. Cistellaria. 8. Epidicus. 9. Bacchides. 10. Mos-
His plays were produced for representation at the tellaria. 11. Menaechmi. 12. Miles. 13. Mer-
great public games, and, content with the applause cator. 14. Pseudolus. 15. Poenulus. 16. Persa.
of his contemporaries and the pay which he re- 17. Rudens. 18, Stichus. 19. Trinummus. 20.
ceived, he did not care for the subsequent fate of Truculentus. 21. Vidularia. This is the order in
his works. A few patrons of literature, such as the which they occur in the manuscripts, though pro-
Scipios, may have preserved copies of the works; bably not the one in which they were originally
but the chief inducement to their preservation arranged by Varro. The present order is evidently
was the interest of the managers of the different alphabetical ; the initial letter of the title of each
troops of actors, the domini gregis
, who had origin- play is alone regarded, and no attention is paid to
ally engaged the poet to write the comedies, and had those which follow: hence we find Captivi
, Cur-
paid him for them, and to whom the manuscripts culio, Casina, Cistellaria : Mostellaria, Menaechmi,
accordingly belonged. It was the interest of these Miles, Mercator : Pseudolus, Poenulus, Persa.
persons to preserve the manuscripts, since they The play of the Bacchides forms the only exception
were not always obliged to bring forth new pieces, to the alphabetical order. It was probably placed
but were frequently paid by the magistrates for after the Epidicus by some copyist, because he had
the representation of plays that had been previously observed that Plautus, in the Bacchides (ii. 2. 36),
acted. That the plays of Plautus were performed referred to the Epidicus as an earlier work. The
after his death is stated in several authorities, and alphabetical arrangement is attributed by many to
may be seen even from some of the prologues (e. g. Priscian, to whom is also assigned the short acrostic
the Prologue to the Casina). But when, towards argument prefixed to each play; but there is no cer-
the middle of the sixth century of the city, one tainty on this point, and the Latinity of the acrostic
dramatic poet arose after another, and the taste for arguments is too pure to have been composed 50
stricter imitations from the Greek began to pre- late as the time of Priscian. The names of the
vail, the comedies of Plautus gradually fell into comedies are either taken from some leading cha.
neglect, and consequently the contractors for the racter in the play, or from some circumstance which
public games ceased to care about their preserva- occurs in it: those titles ending in aria are adjec-
tion. Towards the latter end of the century, how- tives, giving a general description of the play: thus
ever, no new comic poets appeared ; and since new Asinuria is the “ Ass-Comedy. " Besides these
comedies ceased to be brought before the public, twenty-one plays we have already remarked, that
attention was naturally recalled to the older Varro, according to Ritschl's conjecture, regarded
dramas. In this manner Plautus began to be nineteen others as the genuine productions of Plau-
popular again, and his comedies were again fre- tus, though not supported by an equal amount of
quently brought upon the stage. Owing, how- testimony as the twenty-one. Ritschl has collected
ever, to the neglect which his works had sustained, from various authorities the titles of these nineteen
it would appear that doubts had arisen respecting plays. They are as follows : 22. Saturio. 23. Ad-
the genuineness of many of his plays, and that dictus. 24. Boeotia. 25. Nervolaria. 26. Fretum.
several were produced under his name, of which 27. Trigemini. 28. Astraba. 29. Parasitus niger.
the authorship was at least uncertain. Thus the 30. Parusitus medicus. 31. Commorientes. 32. Con-
grammarians, who began to draw up lists of his dalium. 33. Gemini leones. 34. Foeneratrix.
plays in the seventh century of the city, had no 35. Frivolaria 36. Sitellitergus. 37. Fugitivi, 38.
small difficulties to encounter; and the question re-
i
Cacistio. 39. Hortulus. 40. Artemo. of the still
specting the genuineness of certain plays was a larger number of comedies commonly ascribed to
fertile subject of controversy. Besides the treatise Plautus, but not recognised by Varro, the titles of
## p. 410 (#426) ############################################
410
PLAUTUS.
PLAUTUS.
66
only a few have been preserved. They are: the new Attic comedy whom Plautus took as his
à. Colax.
