Produced by Ted Garvin, Louise Hope and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net [Transcriber’s Note: Footnotes are collected at the end of each play. Where a footnote refers to an omitted passage, the verses before and after the omission have been numbered in parentheses: (182) (184) All other line numbers are from the original text.] * * * * * P L A U T U S With an English Translation by PAUL NIXON Dean of BOWDOIN COLLEGE, Maine In Five Volumes I AMPHITRYON THE COMEDY OF ASSES THE POT OF GOLD THE TWO BACCHISES THE CAPTIVES Cambridge, Massachusetts HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS London WILLIAM HEINEMANN LTD _First printed_ 1916 * * * * * CONTENTS Greek Originals of the Plays........vii Introduction.........................ix Bibliography.......................xvii I. Amphitruo, or Amphitryon..............1 II. Asinaria, or the Comedy of Asses....123 III. Aulularia, or the Pot of Gold.......231 IV. Bacchides, or the Two Bacchises.....325 V. Captivi, or the Captives............459 Index...............................569 [Transcriber’s Note: The Index of Proper Names is not included in this e-text.] * * * * * THE GREEK ORIGINALS OF THE PLAYS IN THIS VOLUME In this and each succeeding volume a summary will be given of the consensus of opinion[1] regarding the Greek originals of the plays in the volume and regarding the time of presentation in Rome of Plautus’s adaptations. It may be that some general readers will be glad to have even so condensed an account of these matters as will be offered them. The original of the _Amphitruo_ is not now thought to have been a work of the Middle Comedy but of the New Comedy, very possibly Philemon’s Νὺξ μακρά. A clue to the Greek play’s date is found in the description of Amphitryon’s battle with the Teloboians,[2] a battle fought after the manner of those of the Diadochi who came into prominence at the death of Alexander the Great. The date of the Plautine adaptation of this play, as in the case of the _Asinaria_, _Aulularia_, _Bacchides_,[3] and _Captivi_, is quite uncertain, beyond the fact that it no doubt belongs, like almost all of his extant work, to the last two decades of his life, 204-184 B.C. The _Amphitruo_ is one of the five[4] plays in the first two volumes whose scene is not laid in Athens.