Titus Maccius Plautus, Epidicus

Ulrike Auhagen (Universität Freiburg)

Ed. by William John Dominik, University of Otago
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.1.2: Ancient Roman Writing and Culture (Republic and Empire), -750-476.
Vol. editors: William John Dominik (University of Otago), Giacomo Fedeli (University of Exeter), Thomas Habinek (University of Southern California), Emily Kneebone (University of Nottingham), Elodie Paillard (University of Sydney), Sophia Papaioannou (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens), Jula Wildberger (The American University of Paris)

Dates

First circulation or publication c. -215 - -195

Places

Ancient Rome (Republic & Empire) (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Comedy
Play

Resources

Epidicum quam ego fabulam aeque ac me ipsum amo – “The Epidicus, a play I love as much as myself”: In Plautus’ Comedy Bacchides the slave Chrysalus makes this metatheatrical statement (Bacch. 214). The often discussed verse makes clear that Plautus must have appreciated his comedy Epidicus very much. Like Pseudolus, Truculentus and many other plays, it is named after its main character, the slave Epidicus, who dominates the action: The whole play is a demonstration of his enormous cleverness and his various improvised trickeries.

In spite of the author’s presumed fondness, the comedy – which, with only 733 verses, is one of his shortest plays – was not very highly esteemed …

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1292 words

Citation: Auhagen, Ulrike. "Epidicus". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 16 April 2013 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=34721, accessed 03 May 2024.]

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