Chapter 7

etc., says that Varro admitted twenty-one plays which were given by all the canons, and added some more. 'Nam praeter illas unam et viginti, quae Varronianae vocantur, quas idcirco a ceteris segregavit, quoniam dubiosae non erant, set consensu omnium Plauti esse censebantur, quasdam item alias probavit adductus filo atque facetia sermonis Plauto congruentis easque iam nominibus aliorum occupatas Plauto vindicavit.'

About one hundred and thirty plays were current under the name of Plautus; the theory of Varro (Gell. iii. 3, 10) that these were written by a certain Plautius is improbable.

Gell. iii. 3, 11, 'Feruntur sub Plauti nomine comoediae circiter centum atque triginta.'

There is little doubt that the 'fabulae Varronianae' are those which have come down to us with the addition of the _Vidularia_, which was lost between the sixth and the eleventh centuries. The number of Varro's second class, consisting of those pieces that stood in most of the indices and exhibited Plautine features, Ritschl has fixed at nineteen, from citations in Varro _de lingua Latina_. Besides the genuine plays the names of thirty-two others are known.

The extant plays[6] are as follows:

1. _Amphitruo_, a _tragicomoedia_, the only play of Plautus of the kind. Prol. 59,

'Faciam ut conmixta sit haec tragicomoedia.'

The original and the date are unknown. The play shows the features of the Sicilian _Rhinthonica_.[7] About three hundred lines have been lost after Act. iv., Scene 2. The scene is Thebes, which, with Roman carelessness or ignorance, is made a harbour; cf. ll. 629 _sqq._

2. _Asinaria_ (sc. _fabula_), from the +Onagos+ of Demophilus, supposed to have been a writer of the New Comedy. Prol. 10-12,

'Huic nomen Graece Onagost fabulae; Demophilus scripsit, Maccius vortit barbare. Asinariam volt esse, si per vos licet.'

Authorities assign the play to about B.C. 194. The scene is Athens.

3. _Aulularia_ (from _aulula_, 'a little pot.')--Neither the original nor the exact time of composition is known. From Megadorus' tirade against the luxury of women, ll. 478 _sqq._, it has been inferred that the play was written after the repeal of the Oppian Law in B.C. 195. The end of the play is lost. The scene is Athens.

4. _Captivi_, a piece without active interest (_stataria_), without female characters, and claiming a moral purpose; l. 1029,

'Spectatores, ad pudicos mores facta haec fabulast.'

Some authorities think that the parasite (Ergasilus) is an addition to the original play, which may have belonged to the New Comedy. The scene is in Aetolia.

5. _Curculio_, so called from the name of the parasite. The Greek original is unknown; but ll. 462-86 contain a speech from the Choragus, in the style of the +parabasis+ of the Old Comedy. In