About one hundred and thirty plays were current under the name of Plautus; the theory of Varro (Gell. iii. 3, 10) that these were written by a certain Plautius is improbable.
Gell. iii. 3, 11, ‘Feruntur sub Plauti nomine comoediae circiter centum atque triginta.’
There is little doubt that the ‘fabulae Varronianae’ are those which have come down to us with the addition of the Vidularia, which was lost between the sixth and the eleventh centuries. The number of Varro’s second class, consisting of those pieces that stood in most of the indices and exhibited Plautine features, Ritschl has fixed at nineteen, from citations in Varro de lingua Latina. Besides the genuine plays the names of thirty-two others are known.
The extant plays[6] are as follows:
1. Amphitruo, a tragicomoedia, the only play of Plautus of the kind. Prol. 59,
‘Faciam ut conmixta sit haec tragicomoedia.’
The original and the date are unknown. The play shows the features of the Sicilian Rhinthonica.[7] About three hundred lines have been lost after Act. iv., Scene 2. The scene is Thebes, which, with Roman carelessness or ignorance, is made a harbour; cf. ll. 629 sqq.
2. Asinaria (sc. fabula), from the ᾽Οναγός of Demophilus, supposed to have been a writer of the New Comedy. Prol. 10-12,
‘Huic nomen Graece Onagost fabulae;
Demophilus scripsit, Maccius vortit barbare.
Asinariam volt esse, si per vos licet.’
Authorities assign the play to about B.C. 194. The scene is Athens.