(_b_) Law. So _advocatus_ (_Mil._ 663), _festuca_ (_Mil._ 961), _lege agito_ (_Mil._ 453). Cf. _Menaech._ 571-95 (on patrons and clients); _Trin._ 500-4, where Roman terms of _stipulatio_ are used. 3. _Festivals and localities._--References to these are rarer. Examples are: _Mil._ 691, 'Da, mi vir, Calendis meam qui matrem moenerem'; _Trin._ 545, 'Campans genus'; _Trin._ 609, 'Tam modo, inquit Praenestinus.' _Mil._ 359, 'Credo ego istoc exemplo tibi esse pereundum extra portam'; a reference to the Esquiline gate, outside which slaves were executed. 4. _Private life._--These references are mostly to the lower classes, especially slaves, with whom Plautus was very familiar. Hence words referring to household duties, as _promus_, _suppromus_, _cella_, _cellarius_, _verna_, _pulmentum_ (from _Mil._) To their patois also belong phrases for cheating, like _emungere_, _intervortere_, _sarcinam imponere_, _ducere_, _ductare_, _circumducere_, and the very large number of words relating to punishment, as: _furcifer_, _verbero_, _supplicium virgarum_, _varius virgis_, _talos frangere_, _crux_, _verberea statua_ (_Pseud._ 911); _gymnasium flagri_ (_Asin._ 297). Cf. also _Epid._ 17, 'Quid ais? perpetuen valuisti?--Varie.' From slave life come also terms of abuse like _volturius_, _scelus_, _odium populi_, _mers mala_, _lapis_, _saxum_. Note that cruelty in the treatment of slaves is peculiarly Roman; but their familiarity with their masters and their general situation are from Greek life. _Prosody._[12]--Plautine prosody, which reflected the variation of quantity found in the popular speech, was not properly understood even in Cicero's time. Cf. Cic. _Or._ 184, 'Comicorum senarii propter similitudinem sermonis sic saepe sunt abiecti ut non numquam vix in eis numerus et versus intellegi possit.' The chief points are as follows: 1. Final -s is often lost. _Rud._ 103, 'Patér, salveto, ambóque adeo. Et tu sálvŏs sis'; _Most._ 1124, 'Quóque modo dominum ádvenientem sérvos ludificátŭs sit.' 2. A mute followed by a liquid does not make the preceding vowel long. Thus _agris_, _libros_, _duplex_, are iambi. 3. Iambic words may become pyrrhics, on account of the stress accent on the first syllable. So _dŏmī_ and _căvē_ have the last syllable short.[13] _Trin._ 868, 'Fórĭs pultabo. Ad nóstras aedis híc quidem habet rectám viam'; _Stich._ 99, 'Bónăs ut aequomst fácere facitis, quóm tamen absentís viros.' 4. The stress accent sometimes causes final syllables to be dropped, and so to have no effect on quantity, as in _enim_, _apud_, _quidem_, _parum_, _soror_, _caput_, _amant_, _habent_, etc. _Trin._ 77, 'Qui in méntem venĭt tibi ístaec dicta dícere?' _Stich._ 18 (anapaestic), 'Haec rés vitae me, sórŏr, saturant.'