Italy · 2200th anniversary of the death of Tito Maccio Plauto

Plautus was a Roman comic playwright of the early Republic. He was probably born around 250 BC in Sarsina, in what is now northeastern Italy. Little reliable information about his life has survived; later accounts of his occupations and financial difficulties are not considered certain. His year of death is traditionally given as 184 BC.

His plays belong to the so-called *fabula palliata*, the Roman adaptation of Greek comedies. Plautus drew primarily on Greek New Comedy, but did not merely translate its material into Latin. He adapted it to the expectations of a Roman audience, using wordplay, coarse punchlines, rhythmically varied dialogue and musical sections. The plots are usually set in a Greek-looking world, but deal with conflicts that were also familiar to the Romans: romantic entanglements, financial difficulties, family authority, deception and mistaken identities.

A fixed repertoire of characters is typical. These include young lovers, strict fathers, pimps, misers, boastful soldiers and, in particular, resourceful slaves. The latter often drive the plot forward by outwitting their masters or helping a young couple. Such roles were not individual portraits, but recognizable stage types. Masks made it easier for the audience to identify them quickly.

21 comedies have survived largely complete under Plautus’ name. The best known include *Amphitruo*, *Aulularia*, *Menaechmi* and *Miles gloriosus*. His comedies of mistaken identities and character types continued to influence European theatre history. *Menaechmi*, for example, influenced Shakespeare’s *The Comedy of Errors* (Komödie der Irrungen); material and characters from other plays were repeatedly adapted into new works well into the modern era.

In Plautus’ time, performances took place primarily as part of public festivals. Permanent stone theatres were not built in Rome until much later. The commemorative issue thus refers not only to a traditionally transmitted year of death, but also to an early period in the history of Latin literature and theatre.