Читать книгу The Student's Companion to Latin Authors - Thomas Ross Mills - Страница 13

Plautus’ full name, T. Maccius Plautus, was discovered by Ritschl in the Ambrosian (Milan) palimpsest, which gives, e.g. after the two plays named: ‘T. Macci Plauti Casina explicit’: ‘Macci Plauti Epidicus explicit.’ In Plaut. Merc. l. 6, the MS. reading Mactici was emended by Ritschl to Macci Titi; and in Asin. prol. l. 11, Maccius is the right reading. The MSS. read Maccus, which Bücheler (Rhein. Mus. 41, 12) takes to mean ‘buffoon,’ or ‘writer of comedies,’ from which Plautus took his family name, Maccius, on becoming a Roman citizen. ‘M. Accius,’ formerly supposed to be the name, is found in no MS., but ‘Accius’ is found in Epitome Festi, p. 239, which gives us the poet’s birthplace, Sarsina in Umbria, and suggests another derivation for his name: ‘Ploti appellantur, qui sunt planis pedibus, unde et poeta Accius, quia Umber Sarsinas erat, a pedum planitie initio Plotus, postea Plautus est dictus.’

In the corresponding passage of Festus, we have only ‘… us poeta, quia Umber,’ etc. The name of the poet is lost, and the epitomizer has doubtless made a mistake.

Sarsina is mentioned once by Plautus, Mostell. 770,

‘Quid? Sarsinatis ecquast, si Umbram non habes?’

The year of his birth can only be conjectured; he died B.C. 184.

Cic. Brut. 60, ‘Plautus P. Claudio L. Porcio coss. mortuus est.’

Jerome erroneously assigns Plautus’ death to yr. Abr. 1817 = B.C. 200, ‘Plautus ex Umbria Sarsinas Romae moritur, qui propter annonae difficultatem ad molas manuarias pistori se locaverat; ibi quotiens ab opere vacaret, scribere fabulas et vendere sollicitius consueverat.’

From this notice, and from the passage of Gellius below, we learn that Plautus lost in foreign trade the money he had made as an assistant to scenic artists, and had to work for his living in a flour mill at Rome, during which time he wrote plays, and continued to do so afterwards.

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.” ’