Chapter 6

'Etiam qui res magnas manu saepe gessit gloriose, cuius facta viva nunc vigent, qui apud gentes solus praestat, eum suus pater cum palliod unod ab amica abduxit.'

Naevius was banished and went to Utica, where he died, probably about B.C. 199. It must have been after peace was concluded (B.C. 202), as otherwise he could have reached Utica only by deserting to the enemy.[3] Jerome gives B.C. 201, Cicero B.C. 204, although he says Varro put the date later. The verses on Scipio quoted above could hardly have been written before the battle of Zama.

Jerome yr. Abr. 1816 = B.C. 201, 'Naevius comicus Uticae moritur, pulsus Roma factione nobilium, ac praecipue Metelli.'

Cic. _Brut._ 60, 'His consulibus (B.C. 204), ut in veteribus commentariis scriptum est, Naevius est mortuus; quamquam Varro noster, diligentissimus investigator antiquitatis, putat in hoc erratum vitamque Naevi producit longius.'

(2) WORKS.

1. _Tragedies._--There are extant seven titles and a very few fragments.

2. _Comedies._--There are titles of about thirty-four _palliatae_,[4] and upwards of one hundred and thirty lines extant.

Naevius seems to have adopted _contaminatio_[5] in his plays. Ter. _Andr._ prol. 15,

'Id isti vituperant factum atque in eo disputant contaminari non decere fabulas ... qui quom hunc accusant, Naevium Plautum Ennium accusant.'

3. _Praetextae._--Tragedies on Roman subjects, 'Clastidium' and 'Romulus.' The _praetexta_ was invented by Naevius.

4. _Bellum Punicum_, an epic poem in Saturnians, divided later into seven Books. About seventy-four lines are extant.

Sueton. _Gramm._ 2, 'C. Octavius Lampadio Naevii Punicum bellum, uno volumine et continenti scriptura expositum, divisit in septem libros.'

Books i. and ii. contained the mythical origin of Rome and Carthage, Aeneas' flight from Troy and his sojourn at the court of Dido in Carthage. In Book iii. the history of the First Punic War commenced. The work was imitated by Ennius and Virgil, sometimes closely by the latter. Cf. Servius on _Aen._ i. 198-207, 'O socii,' etc. 'Et totus hic locus de Naevio belli Punici libro translatus est.' _Ibid._ i. 273, 'Naevius et Ennius Aeneae ex filia nepotem Romulum conditorem urbis tradunt.'

Macrob. _Saturn._ vi. 2, 31, 'In principio Aeneidos tempestas describitur et Venus apud Iovem queritur ... Hic locus totus sumptus a Naevio est ex primo libro belli Punici.'

PLAUTUS

(1) LIFE.

Plautus' full name, T. Maccius Plautus, was discovered by Ritschl in the Ambrosian (Milan) palimpsest, which gives, _e.g._ after the two plays named: 'T. Macci Plauti Casina explicit': 'Macci Plauti Epidicus explicit.' In Plaut. _Merc._ l. 6, the MS. reading _Mactici_ was emended by Ritschl to _Macci Titi_; and in _Asin._ prol. l. 11, _Maccius_ is the right reading. The MSS. read _Maccus_, which Bücheler (_Rhein. Mus._ 41, 12) takes to mean 'buffoon,' or 'writer of comedies,' from which Plautus took his family name, Maccius, on becoming a Roman citizen. 'M. Accius,' formerly supposed to be the name, is found in no MS., but 'Accius' is found in _Epitome Festi_, p. 239, which gives us the poet's birthplace, Sarsina in Umbria, and suggests another derivation for his name: 'Ploti appellantur, qui sunt planis pedibus, unde et poeta Accius, quia Umber Sarsinas erat, a pedum planitie initio Plotus, postea Plautus est dictus.'

In the corresponding passage of Festus, we have only '...us poeta, quia Umber,' etc. The name of the poet is lost, and the epitomizer has doubtless made a mistake.

Sarsina is mentioned once by Plautus, _Mostell._ 770,

'Quid? Sarsinatis ecquast, si Umbram non habes?'

The year of his birth can only be conjectured; he died B.C. 184.

Cic. _Brut._ 60, 'Plautus P. Claudio L. Porcio coss. mortuus est.'

Jerome erroneously assigns Plautus' death to yr. Abr. 1817 = B.C. 200, 'Plautus ex Umbria Sarsinas Romae moritur, qui propter annonae difficultatem ad molas manuarias pistori se locaverat; ibi quotiens ab opere vacaret, scribere fabulas et vendere sollicitius consueverat.'

From this notice, and from the passage of Gellius below, we learn that Plautus lost in foreign trade the money he had made as an assistant to scenic artists, and had to work for his living in a flour mill at Rome, during which time he wrote plays, and continued to do so afterwards.

Gell. iii. 3, 14, 'Saturionem et Addictum et tertiam quamdam, cuius nunc mihi nomen non subpetit, in pistrino eum scripsisse, Varro et plerique alii memoriae tradiderunt cum, pecunia omni, quam in operis artificum scaenicorum pepererat, in mercatibus perdita inops Romam redisset et ob quaerendum victum ad circumagendas molas, quae "trusatiles" appellantur, operam pistori locasset.'

We conclude from these varied employments that Plautus can hardly have been less than thirty years old when he began to write plays. His intimacy with the Scipios (Cic. _de Rep._ iv., apud Augustin. _Civ. D._ ii. 9), who fell in Spain B.C. 212, leads to the conclusion that he must have been well established as an author by that date, though none of his plays can be proved to have been written so early. If we suppose that his career as a playwright commenced at thirty, and that his acquaintance with the Scipios lasted ten years, the year of his birth must have been about B.C. 254. This view is supported (1) by the notice in Cic. _Brut._ 73, that Plautus had produced many plays by B.C. 197; (2) by Cic. _Cato maior_, 50, 'quam gaudebat ... Truculento Plautus, quam Pseudolo,' where Plautus is said to have written these plays as _senex_. Now the _Pseudolus_ was written B.C. 191; and therefore, as a man could not be called _senex_ till he was at least sixty, his birth must have been not later than B.C. 251.

Plautus is said to have written his own epitaph.

Gell. i. 24, 3, 'Epigramma Plauti, quod dubitassemus an Plauti foret, nisi a M. Varrone positum esset in libro de poetis primo:

"Postquam est mortem aptus Plautus, Comoedia luget, Scaena est deserta, ac dein Risus, Ludus Iocusque, et Numeri innumeri simul omnes conlacrimarunt."'

(2) WORKS.

Plautus' plays were early criticized as to their genuineness. Gell.