Chapter 8

'Rogitationes plurumas propter vos populus scivit quas vos rogatas rumpitis,'

there is probably an allusion to the Lex Sempronia de pecunia credita, B.C. 193. The scene is Epidaurus.

6. _Casina_, so called from a slave-girl introduced. The original was the +Klêroumenoi+ of Diphilus. Prol. 31,

'Clerumenoe vocatur haec comoedia Graece, Latine Sortientes. Deiphilus hanc Graece scripsit.'

The inference from l. 979, 'Nam ecastor nunc Bacchae nullae ludunt,' that the play was written after the S.C. de Bacchanalibus in B.C. 186, is improbable; the words rather show, as Mommsen[8] believes, an anterior date, when it was not yet dangerous to speak of the Bacchanalia. Some authorities find support for the latter date in the words of the prologue, ll. 9-20 (written after the poet's death). The text of the play has suffered greatly. The scene is Athens.

7. _Cistellaria_.--This play contains a reference to the war against Hannibal then going on; ll. 197 _sqq._,

'Bene valete, et vincite virtute vera, quod fecistis antidhac, ... ut vobis victi Poeni poenas sufferant.'

According to Ritschl, about 600 verses have been lost. The scene is Sicyon.

8. _Epidicus_.--This play is referred to in the _Bacchides_, ll. 213-5 (spoken by Chrysalus), where the unpopularity of the play is attributed to the acting of Pellio.

'Non res, sed actor mihi cor odio sauciat. Etiam Epidicum, quam ego fabulam aeque ac me ipsum amo, nullam aeque invitus specto, si agit Pellio.'

_Epid._ 222,

'Sed vestita, aurata, ornata ut lepide! ut concinne! ut nove!' etc.,

shows that the piece was written after the repeal of the Lex Oppia Sumptuaria, B.C. 195. The plot is complicated, and _contaminatio_ is assumed by some authorities. The play contains only seven hundred and thirty-three lines, and some believe it to be a stage edition. The scene is Athens.

9. _Bacchides_.--The first part of this play, along with the last part of the _Aulularia_,[9] has been lost, as also the prefaces of the grammarians, so that we do not know what was in the first part. The original was probably Menander's +Dis exapatôn+. Plautus appears to refer to this twice, l. 1090,

'Perii: pudet. Hocine me aetatis _ludos bis factum_ esse indigne';