The Student's Companion to Latin Authors. Thomas Ross Mills
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.’
No shortening, however, takes place when the accent goes back to the antepenult (cf. continē), nor in words like aetas, mores, where the first syllable is long, nor even in abi, tene, tace, and the like, when the chief accent is weakened, i.e., where these words are pronounced slowly and emphatically (especially before a pause). Asin. 543,
‘Intro abī: nam té quidem edepol níhil est inpudéntius.’
5. This influence of the chief accent affects also combinations of two monosyllabic words which make an iambus, and combinations like ego illi, age ergo, in which the second syllable of the second word is elided. Trin. 354,
‘Is ĕst inmunis, quoí nihil est qui múnus fungatúr suom’;
Trin. 133,
‘Non égo ĭlli argentum rédderem? Non rédderes’;
Stich. 237,
‘Adíbo ad hominem. Quís haĕc est quae advorsúm venit?’
6. The chief accent could also affect a preceding syllable. In polysyllables or polysyllabic combinations, when the chief accent was on the third syllable, the second syllable, if long, could be shortened, provided the first syllable were short. Trin. 456,
‘Ferĕntárium esse amícum inventum intéllego’;
Stich. 59,
‘Néc volŭntate id fácere meminit,’ etc.;
Stich. 179,
‘Per ănnónam caram díxit me natúm pater.’
7. The following common words have to be separately considered, ille, iste, unde, inde, nempe. In the last three the liquid was practically dropped; iste was pronounced as ste; and in ille only one l was heard, cf. ellum, ellam (en-illum = en-ilum = en-lum = ellum). Frustra is a trochee, as in Menaech. 692 (at the end of a line), frústră sis; and the first i of fieri is long. Cf. Trin. 532,
’Si in ópserendo possint interfīeri.’
8. An original long vowel is sometimes kept when later authors have it short. Examples are, es (from esse), final -or, as exertitor, fateor, ecastor; verbal endings, as eris, eget, sit, det, fuat, velit.
9. Synizesis. Deus, meus, tuos, suos (nom.), eius, ei, eum, quoius, quoi, huius, huic, rei, etc., may be monosyllables; deorum, meorum, duorum, fuisti, etc., may be dissyllables; diutius, exeundum, etc., may be trisyllables. Other examples are proin, proinde, praeoptare, dehortor, aibam, quator.
10. Hiatus. This occurs, though not frequently, (a) at the natural division of the metre. Menaech. 219,
‘Spórtulam cape átque argentum. | éccos treis nummós habes.’
(b) At the natural break in the sense, especially with change of speakers. Trin. 432,
PH. ‘Tempúst adeundi.’ LE. ‘Éstne hic Philto qui ádvenit?’
The hiatus is commonest in monosyllabic words, or words ending in a short syllable followed by m, making the first syllable of an arsis resolved into two shorts. Trin. 433,
‘Is hérclest ipsus. Édepol ne ego istúm velim’;
Trin. 305,
‘Quí homo cum animo inde áb ineunte aetáte depugnát suo.’
Views on Plautus.—For Cicero’s high opinion of Plautus cf. de Off. i. 104, ‘Duplex omnino est iocandi genus: unum inliberale petulans, flagitiosum obscaenum, alterum elegans urbanum, ingeniosum facetum. Quo genere non modo Plautus noster et Atticorum antiqua comoedia, sed etiam philosophorum Socraticorum libri referti sunt.’
Horace’s unfavourable judgment is well known.
Ep. ii, 1, 170,
‘Adspice Plautus
quo pacto partis tutetur amantis