Chapter 10

'quem di diligunt adulescens moritur.'

The date is pretty well fixed by l. 1073,

'Quod non triumpho: pervolgatumst, nil moror.'

Now, triumphs were not frequent till after the Second Punic War, and were especially frequent from B.C. 197 to 187. The play probably refers to the four triumphs of B.C. 189, and may have been brought out in that or the following year. The scene is Athens.

10. _Mostellaria_ (sc. _fabula_, 'a play dealing with a ghost,' from _mostellum_, dim. of _monstrum_).--The play is quoted by Festus, p. 166, as 'Mostellaria'; pp. 162 and 305, as 'Phasma.' According to Ritschl, the +Phasma+ of Philemon was Plautus' model. The reference to _unguenta exotica_ (l. 42) points to a late date, when Asiatic luxury was growing common. The play is imitated in Ben Jonson's _Alchemist_. The scene is Athens.

11. _Menaechmi_.--If ll. 409 _sqq._, 'Syracusis ... ubi rex ... nunc Hierost,' were written independently by Plautus, the date must be before B.C. 215; but the reference may only mean that the Greek original was composed between 275 and 215 B.C. It has been conjectured that a comedy by Posidippus (possibly called +Didymoi+) was the original, from Athenaeus, xiv. p. 658, +oude gar an heuroi tis hymon doulon tina mageiron en kômôdia plên para Poseidippô monô+. Now, the _Menaechmi_ is the only play of Plautus where a cook is a house-slave, Cylindrus being the slave of Erotium; in his other plays cooks are hired from the Forum. The scene is Epidamnus.

12. _Miles Gloriosus_.--In ll. 211-2 (the only personal allusion in Plautus),

'Nam os columnatum poetae esse indaudivi barbaro, quoi bini custodes semper totis horis occubant,'

we have a reference to the imprisonment of Naevius, which shows that the play was written before his banishment, probably B.C. 206-5 (see under 'Naevius'). Line 1016, 'Cedo signum, si harum Baccharum es,' shows that the play is anterior to B.C. 186.

The original is the +Alazôn+ of some Greek poet. Cf. ll. 86-7,

'Alazon Graece huic nomen est comoediae: id nos Latine gloriosum dicimus.'

The play, however, exhibits _contaminatio_. Two distinct actions, the cheating of Sceledrus (Act i.) and the cheating of the Miles (Acts ii. and iii.), are united rather loosely; and it has been conjectured that Menander's +Kolax+, or (according to Ritschl) Diphilus' +Hairêsiteichês+, was the play used. Ritschl's view is perhaps supported by the word _urbicape_ in l. 1055. The play is the longest _palliata_ preserved. The scene is Ephesus.

13. _Mercator_.--The original is Philemon's +Emporos+; ll. 5-6,

'Graece haec vocatur Emporos Philemonis; eadem Latine Mercator Macci Titi.'

Some light is thrown on the date by ll. 524-6.

'_L._ Ovem tibi eccillam dabo, natam annos sexaginta, peculiarem. _P._ Mei senex, tam vetulam? _L._ Generis Graeci est. Eam sei curabeis, perbonast; tondetur nimium scite.'

This could not have been written before B.C. 196, the date of the settlement of Greece. The play shows traces of two distinct editions. The scene is Athens.

14. _Pseudolus_.--The Greek original is unknown. The date of production (B.C. 191) is got from the didascalia, as restored by Ritschl, 'M. Iunio M. fil. pr. urb. acta Megalesiis.' The Megalesian games were held in that year in honour of the dedication of the temple which had been vowed to Cybele, B.C. 204 (Livy, xxxvi. 36). 'Pseudolus' = +Pseudylos+, but is connected by popular etymology with _dolus_. Cf. the puns in l. 1205,

'Edepol hominem verberonem Pseudolum, ut docte dolum commentust';