The comedies of Plautus are filled with descriptions of cultural details that are evidence for some of the ways in which Latin-speaking peoples of the Middle Republican period conceptualized the world. Chapter Four, 'Gentes', examines the manner in which Plautus ascribes his characters and the people of the world into particular groups and what variation and importance there are in these attributes and specifications.
This chapter is divided into three parts: the city sites, the dramatic settings, and the distant countries and cities of the world. Chapter Three, Places, looks at the wide variety of places that construct the world of Plautus' characters. This chapter evaluates a cross-section of the activities that the characters describe, such as their reference to public offices and civic duties, the details of their religious practices, their dealings with wealth and money, as well as their references to travel, education and slave duties. Chapter Two, Customs, considers the expression of the affairs of daily life that are of common interest to the characters on stage. Chapter One, Language, analyzes how the Latin language influences the way in which the characters express the various aspects of their world. To achieve this goal the study has been divided into four chapters: Language, Customs, Places and 'Gentes'. This dissertation examines the cultural constructs that are the basic elements of the comedies of Plautus. It is the aim of this commentary and introduction to aid appreciation and understanding of the material that survives to us, while not forgetting that it does not exist in isolation from its Greek model, but recognising that there is value in a study of this play for itself, whether or not Plautus remained close to or deviated much from his Greek model. At the end of the commentary there is a conspectus metrorum, which aims to provide a starting-point for an investigation of the metre of the play, rather than a definitive analysis. These themes have been emphasised in order to create a form useful to both undergraduate and postgraduate students, since the ultimate aim is to publish the commentary. Thus I have aimed to investigate technical aspects in detail, while keeping in mind a broader perspective, which enables one to discover the themes of the play. The commentary focuses on the explanation of lines which are difficult or unusual linguistically, metrically, or textually, but also discusses social and historical themes as they arise, which are not examined in the introduction.
However, there is not an attempt either to discover exactly what Plautus wrote, or to reconstruct the Greek model. The introduction also examines the characters of the play, some aspects relating to the Greek model, the main features of Plautine Latin, and the MSS tradition. In the introduction I examine the key themes and issues of Aulularia, in particular the two main textual problems of the names of the slaves and the lost ending, and the two main themes of communication and religion. This thesis provides a commentary on Plautus' Aulularia. By its structure, metrical arrangement, pacing, juxtaposition of contrasting types, parallel arrangement of core scenes, and the recurrence of key imagery, themes and motifs, the Mercator proves to be a carefully conceived, effectively balanced, and well-composed play. In recent work about Plautus and Philemon it has been argued that the plot of the Emporos underwent far-reaching changes at the hands of Plautus, but the author of this thesis argues for the essential unity of the Mercator and for Plautus' conservative treatment of the plot of the Greek original, at the same time allowing for the fact that Plautus may have Romanised, exaggerated, and extended Philemon's play at certain points. An attempt is also made to distinguish between elements which may reflect the Greek comic tradition and those which suggest Plautine origin. The commentary is provided to address problems posed by the Latin text, notably those of exegesis, textual criticism, metre, grammar, humour, imagery, staging, and the relationship to the Graeco-Roman comic tradition. The introductory chapter, apart from a brief discussion of a more general nature, investigates the play and the relation it bears to Philemon's Emporos, its lost Greek model, especially with regard to the actdivisions of the Greek play and the pacing of the action in Plautus' adaptation. This thesis comprises an introduction, a lemmatic commentary, and indices.
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