7. Cistellaria.—This play contains a reference to the war against Hannibal then going on; ll. 197 sqq.,
‘Bene valete, et vincite
virtute vera, quod fecistis antidhac, ...
ut vobis victi Poeni poenas sufferant.’
According to Ritschl, about 600 verses have been lost. The scene is Sicyon.
8. Epidicus.—This play is referred to in the Bacchides, ll. 213-5 (spoken by Chrysalus), where the unpopularity of the play is attributed to the acting of Pellio.
‘Non res, sed actor mihi cor odio sauciat.
Etiam Epidicum, quam ego fabulam aeque ac me ipsum amo,
nullam aeque invitus specto, si agit Pellio.’
Epid. 222,
‘Sed vestita, aurata, ornata ut lepide! ut concinne! ut nove!’ etc.,
shows that the piece was written after the repeal of the Lex Oppia Sumptuaria, B.C. 195. The plot is complicated, and contaminatio is assumed by some authorities. The play contains only seven hundred and thirty-three lines, and some believe it to be a stage edition. The scene is Athens.
9. Bacchides.—The first part of this play, along with the last part of the Aulularia,[9] has been lost, as also the prefaces of the grammarians, so that we do not know what was in the first part. The original was probably Menander’s Δὶς ἐξαπατῶν. Plautus appears to refer to this twice, l. 1090,
‘Perii: pudet. Hocine me aetatis ludos bis factum esse indigne’;