l. 1128,
‘Pol hodie altera iam bis detonsa certost.’
The line, ὃν οἱ θεοὶ φιλοῦσιν, ἀποθνῄσκει νέος, which belongs to the same play (Stobaeus, Serm. 120, 8) is translated in ll. 816-7,
‘quem di diligunt
adulescens moritur.’
The date is pretty well fixed by l. 1073,
‘Quod non triumpho: pervolgatumst, nil moror.’
Now, triumphs were not frequent till after the Second Punic War, and were especially frequent from B.C. 197 to 187. The play probably refers to the four triumphs of B.C. 189, and may have been brought out in that or the following year. The scene is Athens.
10. Mostellaria (sc. fabula, ‘a play dealing with a ghost,’ from mostellum, dim. of monstrum).—The play is quoted by Festus, p. 166, as ‘Mostellaria’; pp. 162 and 305, as ‘Phasma.’ According to Ritschl, the Φάσμα of Philemon was Plautus’ model. The reference to unguenta exotica (l. 42) points to a late date, when Asiatic luxury was growing common. The play is imitated in Ben Jonson’s Alchemist. The scene is Athens.
11. Menaechmi.—If ll. 409 sqq., ‘Syracusis ... ubi rex ... nunc Hierost,’ were written independently by Plautus, the date must be before B.C. 215; but the reference may only mean that the Greek original was composed between 275 and 215 B.C. It has been conjectured that a comedy by Posidippus (possibly called Δίδυμοι) was the original, from Athenaeus, xiv. p. 658, οὐδὲ γὰρ ἂν εὕροι τις ὑμῶν δοῦλόν τινα μάγειρον ἐν κωμῳδίᾳ πλὴν παρὰ Ποσειδίππῳ μόνῳ. Now, the Menaechmi is the only play of Plautus where a cook is a house-slave, Cylindrus being the slave of Erotium; in his other plays cooks are hired from the Forum. The scene is Epidamnus.
12. Miles Gloriosus.—In ll. 211-2 (the only personal allusion in Plautus),