Titus Macchius Plautus (; c. 254 – 184 BC), often known as Plautus, was a playwright in Ancient Rome. He was probably born in Sarsina (a city in Emilia-Romagna). His comedies are among the earliest works of Latin literature that has not been lost. He is also one of the earliest writers of musical theater.

Biography
Little is known about Plautus' early life. When Plautus was young, he built stages for plays. He also helped change the scenes. This might be when he started to love the theatre. People noticed that he was a talented actor. He called himself "Macchius" (a clownish character in popular farces), and "Plautus" (a term meaning "flat-footed"). Tradition also says that after some time, he made enough money to start working in the shipping business. He started something, but he was not successful. He then is said to have worked as someone who worked with his hands. He learned about Greek drama – particularly the New Comedy of Menander – in his free time. His studies led to his plays being shown. The plays were first shown between c. 205 BC and 184 BC. Plautus' comedies are mostly adaptations of Greek plays for Roman people. They are usually based on the works of the Greek playwrights.

Plautus and the Gods of Roman Society
H. M. Tolliver talks about the state gods of Rome and what their importance was in the Theatre of Plautus. These gods were an important part of the Romans' lives in Plautus’ time - people were supposed to worship them. Tolliver tells us that the gods were not exactly like the gods worshipped today. They were worshipped but also stood as a national symbol. State religion also served as a political tool. If the gods supported a bad leader, the people should too.

Plautus is sometimes accused of teaching the public indifference and mockery of the gods. Any character in his plays could be compared to a god. Whether to honour a character or to mock him, these references were demeaning to the gods. These references to the gods include a character comparing a mortal woman to a god, or saying he would rather be loved by a woman than by the gods. Pyrgopolynices from Miles Gloriosus (vs. 1265), in bragging about his long life, says he was born one day later than Jupiter. In Pseudolus, Jupiter is compared to Ballio the pimp. It is not uncommon, either, for a character to scorn the gods. This can be seen in Poenulus and Rudens.

Usually the only characters that scorn a god are those of low standing, like a pimp. Plautus perhaps does this to further demoralize the characters. Soldiers often bring ridicule among the gods. Young men, meant to represent the upper social class, often make fun of the gods in their remarks. Parasites, pimps, and courtesans often praise the gods with little ceremony. Tolliver argues that drama both reflects and foreshadows social change. It is likely that there was already much skepticism about the gods in Plautus’ time. Plautus did not make up or encourage irreverence to the gods, but used the ideas of his time. The state controlled stage productions, and Plautus’ plays would have been banned, had they been too risky.

Gnaeus Naevius
Gnaeus Naevius was another Roman playwright of the late third century BC. He wrote tragedies and even founded the fabula praetexta (history plays), in which he dramatized historical events. He fought in the First Punic War and his birth, therefore, is placed around the year 280 B.C.E. His first tragedy took place in 235 B.C.E. Plautus would have been living at the exact time as Naevius, but began writing later. Naevius is most famous for having been imprisoned by the Metelli and the Scipiones – two powerful families of the late third century. Naevius’ imprisonment and eventual exile is a case of state censorship. This fear of censorship may have influenced Plautus’ choice of what he wrote about and how he wrote about it.

Typical characters
While hundreds of plays have been attributed to Plautus' name, the canon consists of 20 surviving plays. To be able to use a more diverse set of characters, he developed what is called a stock character. He sometimes used typical situations where these characters could be used as well. He always used the same kinds of stock characters, especially if he could amuse the audience. As Walter Juniper wrote, “Everything, including artistic characterization and consistency of characterization, were sacrificed to humor, and character portrayal remained only where it was necessary for the success of the plot and humor to have a persona who stayed in character, and where the persona by his portrayal contributed to humor.”

For example, in  Miles Gloriosus, the titular “braggart soldier” Pyrgopolynices only shows his vain and immodest side in the first act, while the parasite Artotrogus exaggerates Pyrgopolynices’ achievements. Artotrogus  creates more and more ludicrous claims that Pyrgopolynices agrees to without question. These two are perfect examples of the stock characters of the pompous soldier and the desperate parasite that appeared in Plautine comedies.

In this way, Plautus could greatly simplify complex characters and give the audience what it wanted. “The audience to whose tastes Plautus catered was not interested in the character play,” instead it wanted humor that was easy to understand by many people. Stock setups offered such humor. Plautus used puns, he played with words, or he gave the words another meaning. Usually, the humorous characters in Plautine plays are of low social standing. This helps the comedy overall, because lower-class characters were often taken less seriously, and had to be less careful what they said.

Related pages
 Moliere
 Second Punic War
 Shakespeare

Footnotes

Works cited
 Anderson, W. S. Barbarian Play: Plautus’ Roman Comedy (Toronto, 1993).
 Anderson, W.S. "The Roman Transformation of Greek Domestic Comedy," The Classical World 88.3 (1995), pp. 171–180.
 Andrews, N.E. “Tragic Re-Presentation and the Semantics of Space in Plautus,” Mnemosyne 57.4 (2004), pp. 445–464.
 Arnott, W. G. "A Note on the Parallels between Menander’s ‘Dyskolos’ and Plautus’ ‘Aulularia," Phoenix 18.3 (1964), pp. 232–237.
 Baldwin, T.W. The Compositional Genetics of The Comedy of Errors. (Urbana 1965), pp. 200–209.
 Barber, C.L. “Shakespearian Comedy in the Comedy of Errors,” College English 25.7(1964), pp. 493–497.
 Beede, G.L. “Proverbial Expressions in Plautus,” The Classical Journal 44.6(1949), pp. 357–362.
 Bieber, M. The History of the Greek and Roman Theater. (Princeton 1961.).
 Bradner, L. "The First Cambridge Production of Miles Gloriosus," Modern Language Notes 70.6 (1965), pp. 400–403.
 Brown, PG. “Actors and Actor – Managers at Rome in the Time of Plautus and Terence,” in Greek and Roman Actors: Aspects of an Ancient Profession. Ed. P. Easterling and E. Hall. (Cambridge 2002.).
 Castellani, V. "Plautus Versus Komoidia: Popular Farce at Rome," in Farce, Ed. J. Redmond (Cambridge and New York, 1988), pp. 53–82.
 Cole, H.W. “The Influence of Plautus and Terence Upon the Stonyhurst Pageants,” Modern Language Notes 38 (1923), pp. 393–399.
 Cole, S.V. “Plautus Up-to-Date.” The Classical Journal 16 (1921), pp. 399–409.
 Coleman, R.G.G. “Poetic Diction, Poetic Discourse and the Poetic Register,” in Aspects of the Language of Latin Poetry. Ed. J.N. Adams & R.G. Mayer. (Oxford and New York 1999), pp. 21–96.
 Connors, C. "Monkey Business: Imitation, Authenticity, and Identity from Pithekoussai to Plautus," Classical Antiquity 23.2 (2004), pp. 179–207.
 Conte, G.B. Latin Literature: A History. (Baltimore 1994).
 Draper, J.W. “Falstaff and the Plautine Parasite,” The Classical Journal 33 (1938), pp. 390–401.
 Duckworth, G.E. “The Unnamed Characters in the Plays of Plautus,” Classical Philology 33.2 (1938), pp. 167–282.
 Echols, E.C. “The Quid-Greeting in Plautus and Terence,” The Classical Journal 45.4(1950), pp. 188–190.
 Ed. Dorey, T.A. and Dudley, D.R. Roman Drama, (New York, 1965).
 P. E. Easterling, Philip Hardie, Richard Hunter, E. J. Kenney Plautus' Casina 1976 Cambridge University Press 
 Fantham, E. "The Curculio of Plautus: An Illustration of Plautine Methods in Adaptation," The Classical Quarterly 15.1 (1965), pp. 84–100.
 Goldberg, S.M. “Plautus on the Palatine,” The Journal of Roman Studies 88 (1998), pp. 1–20.
 Goldberg, S.M. “Act to Action in Plautus’ Bacchides,” Classical Philology 85.3 (1990), pp. 191-201.
 Halporn, J. "Roman Comedy and Greek Models," in Theater and Society in the Classical World, ed. Ruth Scodel (Ann Arbor, 1993), pp. 191–213.
 Hammond, M., A.M. Mack, W. Moskalew. “Introduction: The Stage and Production,” in Miles Gloriosus. Ed. M. Hammond, A. Mack, W. Moskalew. (London and Cambridge 1997 repr.), pp. 15–29.
 Hanson, J.A. Roman Theater – Temples (Princeton 1959).
 Harsh, P.W. “Position of Archaic Forms in the Verse of Plautus,” Classical Philology 35.2(1940), pp. 126–142.
 Harsh, P.W. “The Intriguing Slave in Greek Comedy,” Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association 86 (1955), pp. 135 –142.
 Hodgman, A.W. “Adjectival Forms in Plautus,” The Classical Review 16.9(1902), pp. 446–452.
 Hodgman, A.W. “Adverbial Forms in Plautus,” The Classical Review 17.6(1903), pp. 296–303.
 Hodgman, A.W. “Noun Declension in Plautus,” The Classical Review 16.6(1902), pp. 294–305.
 Hodgman, A.W. “Verb Forms in Plautus (continued),” The Classical Quarterly 1.2(1907), pp. 97–134.
 Hodgman, A.W. “Verb Forms in Plautus,” The Classical Quarterly 1.1(1907), pp. 42–52.
 Hoffmann, M.E. “Conversation Openings in the Comedies of Plautus,” in Latin Linguistics and Linguistic Theory: Proceedings of the First International Colloquium on Latin Linguistics. Ed. H. Pinkster. (Amsterdam 1981), pp. 217–226.
 Hough, J.N. “The Development of Plautus’ Art,” Classical Philology 30.1(1935), pp. 43-57.
 Hough, J.N. “The Reverse Comic Foil in Plautus,” The American Philological Association 73 (1942), pp. 108–118.
 Jocelyn, H.D. “Gods, Cult, and Cultic Language in Plautus’ Epidicus,” in Studien zu Plautus’ Epidicus. Ed. U. Auhagen. (Tübingen 2001), pp. 261–296.
 Juniper, W.H. “Character Portrayals in Plautus,” The Classical Journal 31 (1936), pp. 276–288.
 Krauss, Amanda Neill Untaming the Shrew: Marriage, Morality and Plautine Comedy  2004
 Lindsay, W.M. The Syntax of Plautus. (London 2002 repr.).
 Lloyd, R. F. "Two Prologues: Menander and Plautus," The American Journal of Philology 84.2 (1963), pp. 146–161.
 Lowe, J. C. B. “The Virgo Callida of Plautus, Persa,” The Classical Quarterly 39.2(1989), pp. 390–399
 Lowe, J.C.B. "Aspects of Plautus’ Originality in the Asinaria," The Classical Quarterly 42 (1992), pp. 152-175.
 Marples, M. "Plautus," Greece & Rome 8.22 (1938), pp. 1–7.
 McCarthy, K. Slaves, Masters, and the Art of Authority in Plautine Comedy. (Princeton 2000).
 Moore, T. J. Theater of Plautus: Playing to the Audience. (Austin 1998).
 Moore, T.J. “Palliata Togata: Plautus, Curculio 462-86,” The American Journal of Philology 112.3 (1991), pp. 343–362.
 Moore, T.J. “Seats and Social Status in the Plautine Theater,” The Classical Journal 90.2 (1995), pp. 113–123.
 Nyman, M.A. “Where Does Latin Sum Come From?,” Language 53.1(1977), pp. 39–60.
 Owens, W. M. "The Third Deception in Bacchides: Fides and Plautus' Originality," The American Journal of Philology 115 (1994), pp. 381–407.
 Packman, Z.M. “Feminine Role Designations in the Comedies of Plautus,” The American Journal of Philology 120.2 (1999), pp. 245–258.
 Prescott, H.W. "Criteria of Originality in Plautus," Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association 63 (1932), pp. 103–125.
 Rosivach, V.J. “Plautine Stage Settings,” Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association 101 (1970), pp. 445–461.
 Rudd, N. The Classical Tradition in Operation. (Toronto 1994), pp. 32–60.
 Ryder, K.C. “The ‘Senex Amator’ in Plautus,” Greece & Rome 31.2 (1984), pp.181-189.
 Seaman, W.M. "The Understanding of Greek by Plautus’ Audience," Classical Journal 50 (1954), pp. 115-119.
 Sedgwick, W.B. “The History of a Latin Comedy,” The Review of English Studies 3.11 (1927), 346-349.
 Segal, E. Roman Laughter: The Comedy of Plautus. (Cambridge 1968).
 Slater, N.W. Plautus In Performance: The Theatre of the Mind. (Princeton 1985).
 Stace, C. "The Slaves of Plautus," Greece & Rome 15 (1968), pp. 64–77.
 Sutton, D. F. Ancient Comedy: The War of the Generations (New York 1993).
 Waite, S. “Word Position in Plautus: Interplay of Verse Ictus and Word Stress,” in The Computer in Literary and Linguistic Studies. Ed. A. Jones & R.F. Churchhouse. (Cardiff 1976), pp. 92–105.
 Watt, H. A. “Plautus and Shakespeare: Further Comments on Menaechmi and The Comedy of Errors.” The Classical Journal 20 (1925), pp. 401–407.
 Wiles, D. “Recent Critical Approaches to Plautus,” in Farce. Ed. J. Redmond. (Cambridge 1988), pp. 261–272.
 Wymer, R. “Shakespeare and the Mystery Cycles,” English Literary Renaissance 34.3 (2004), pp. 265–285.

Other websites

 
 Biographical material on Plautus.
 Works by Plautus

250s BC births
184 BC deaths
Playwrights
Ancient Roman writers