the most celebrated comic poet of Rome, was a native of Sarsina, a small village in Umbria. Almost the only particulars, which we possess respecting his life, are contained in a passage of A. Gellius (3.3), which is quoted from Varro. According to this account it would appear that Plautus was of humble origin (compare Plantiae prosapiae, homo, Minnc. Felix, Oct. 14), and that he came to Rome at an early age. Varro related that the poet was first employed as a worknan or a menial for the actors on the stage (in operis artificum scceicorum), and that with the money which he earned in this way, he embarked in some business, but that having, lost all his money in trade, he returned to Rome, and, in order to gain a living, was obliged to work at a hand-mill, grinding corn for a baker. Varro further adds that while employed in this work (in pistrino), he wrote three comedies, the Saturiro, Addictus, and a third, of which the name is not mentioned. Hieronymus, in the Chronicon of Eusebius, gives almost the same account, which he probably also derived from Varro. It would seem that it was only for the sake of varying the narrative that he wrote "that as often as Plautus had leisure, he was accustomed to write plays and sell theme."
This is all that we know for certain respecting the life of Plautus; but even this little has not been correctly stated by most authors of his life. Thus Lessing, in his life of the poet, relates that Plantus early commenced writing plays for the aediles, and acquired thereby a sufficient sum of money to enable him to embark in business. It is the more necessary to call attention to this error, since, from the great authority of Lessing, it has been repeated in most sublseqluent biographies of the poet. The words of Gellius, in operis artificum scenicorum, have no reference to the composition of plays. The artifices scenici are the actors, who employed servants to attend to various things which they needed for the stage, and a servant of such a kind was called an operarius, as we see from funeral inscriptions. Moreover, if Plautus had previously written plays for the stage, which must have already gained him some reputation, it is not likely that he should have been compelled on his return to Rome to engage in the menial office of a grinder at a mill for the sake of obtaining a livelihood. On the contrary, it is much more probable that the comedies which he composed in the mill, were the first that he ever wrote, and that the reputation and money which he acquired by them enablled him to abandon his menial mode of life.
The age of Plautus has been a subject of no small controversy. Cicero says (Brut. 15) that he died in the consulship of P. Claudius and L. Porcins, when Cato was censor, that is, in B. C. 134 ; and there is no reason to doubt this express statement. It is true that Hieronymus, in the Chronicon of Eusebius, places his death in the 145th Olympiad, fourteen years earlier (B. C. 200); but the dates of Hieronymus are frequently erroneous, and this one in particular deserves all the less credit, inscription, since we know that the Pseudolus was not represeated till B. C. 191, and the Bacchides somewhat later, according to the probable supposition of Ritschl. But though the date of Plautus's death seems certain, the time of his birth is a more doubtful point. Ritschl, who has examined the subject with great diligence and acumen in his essay De Aetate Plauti, supposes that he was born about the beginning of the sixth century of the city (about B. C. 254), and that he commenced his career as a comic poet about B. C. 224, when he was thirty years of age. This supposition is con firmed by the fact that Cicero speaks (Cato, 14) of the Pseudolus, which was acted in. B. C.191, as written by Plattus when he was an old man, an epithet which Cicero would certainly have given to no one under thirty years of age; and also by the circumstance that in another passage of Cicero (quoted by Augustine, De Cix. Dci, 2.9), Plautus and Naevius are spoken of as the contemporaries of P. and Cn. Scipio, of whom the former was consul in B. C. 222, and the latter in B. C. 218. The principal objection to the above mentioned date for the birth of Plautus, arises from a passage of Cicero, in his Tusculan Disputations (i. l), according to which it would appear that Plautus and Naevius were younger than Ennius, who was born in B. C. 239. But we know that this cannot be true of Naevius; and Ritschl has shown that the passage, when rightly interpreted, refers to Livius, and not to Ennius, being older than Naevius and Plautus. Indeed, Cicero, in another of his works (Brut. 13.23), [*](* Read "cui si aequalis fuerit," and not "cui quum aequalis fuerit.") makes Plantns somewhat (aliqstanto,) older than Ennius, and states that Naevins and Plautus had exhibited many plays before the consulship of C. Cornelius and Q. Minncius, that is, before B. C. 197. Moreover, from the way in which Naevius and Plautus are mentioned together, we may conclude that the latter was older than Ennius. Tereince, therefore, in his Prologue to the Andria (5.18), hs preserved the chronological order, when he speaks of "Naevium, Plautum, Ennium." We may safely assign the second Punic war and a few years subsequently, as the flourishing period of the literary life of Plautus.
It is a curious fact that the full name of the
T. Maccius was the original name of the poet. The surname of Plautus was given him from the flatness of his feet, according to the testimony of Festus (p. 238, ed. Miller), who further states that people with flat feet were called Ploti by the Umbrians. But besides Plautus we find another surname given to the poet in many manuscripts and several editions, namely, that of Asinius. In all these instances, however, he is always called Plautus Asinius, never Asinius Plautus, so that it would appear that Asinius was not regarded as his gentile name, but as a cognomen. Hence some modern writers have supposed that he had two cognomens, and that the surname of Asinus was given to him in contempt, from the fact of his working at a mill, which was usually the work of an ass (Asinus) and that this surname was changed by the copyists into Asinius. But this explanation of the origin of the surname is in itself exceedingly improbable; and if Asinius were a regular cognomen of the poet, it is inconceivable that we should find no mention of it in any of the ancient writers. Ritschl, however, has pointed out the true origin of the name, and has proved quite satisfactorily, however improbable the statement appears at first sight, that Asinius is a corruption of Sarsinas, the ethnic name of the poet. He has, by a careful examination of manuscripts, traced the steps by which Sarsinatis first became Arsinatis, which was then written Arsin., subsequently Arsinii, and finally Asinii.
Having thus discussed the chief points connected with the life of our poet, we may sum up the results in a few words. T. Maccius Plautus was born at the Umbrian village of Sarsina, about B. C. 254. He probably came to Rome at an early age, since he displays such a perfect mastery of the Latin language, and an acquaintance with Greek literature, which he could hardly have acquired in a provincial town. Whether he ever obtained the Roman franchise is doubtful. When he arrived at Rome he was in needy circumstances, and was first employed in the service of the actors. With the money he had saved in this inferior station he left Rome and set up in business: but his speculations failed; he returned to Rome, and his necessities obliged him to enter the service of a baker. who employed him in turning a hand-mill. While in this degrading occupation he wrote three plays, the sale of which to the managers of the public games enabled him to quit his drudgery, and begin his literary career. He was then probably about 30 years of age (B. C. 224), and accordingly commenced writing comedies a few years before the breaking out of the Second Punic War. He continued his literary occupation for about forty years. and died B. C. 184, when he was seventy years of age. His contemporaries at first were Livins Andronicus and Naevius, afterwards Ennius and Caecilius: Terence did not rise into notice till almost twenty years after his death. During the long time that he held possession of the stage, he was always a great favourite of the people; and he expressed a bold consciousness of his own powers in the epitaph which he wrote for his tomb, and which has been preserved by A. Gellius (1.24):--
- Postquam est mortem aptus Plautus, comoedia luget
- Scella deserta, dein risus, Indus jocusque
- Et numeri innumeri simul omnes collacrumarunt.