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. iii. 3, 1-3, after mentioning the canons of Aelius Stilo, Sedigitus, 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.'