Flammarii violarii cararii,
Propolæ linteones calceolarii,
Sedentarii sutores diabathrarii—
Solearii astant, astant molocinarii,
Petunt fullones, sarcinatores petunt,
Iam hosce absolutos censeas: cedunt petunt
Trecenti: circumstant phulacistæ in atriis,
Textores linbularii, arcularii:
Aut aliqua mala crux semper est quæ aliquid petat.”
The extravagance of the women is rather a favourite subject of attack with Plautus. Adelphasium, in a beautiful passage in the ‘Pœnulus,’ describes how the whole day is frittered away in bathing, polishing, painting, and such operations, and in ‘Epidicus’ we have an enumeration of the vast variety of dresses which they wore. It may be questioned how far these descriptions were taken from the Greek, and how far they are applicable to Roman women. Wagner supposes that the passage in the ‘Aulularia’ refers to Roman women, and bases on it an argument for the date of the play. It is scarcely possible to imagine that Plautus would have introduced such passages if they did not tell, but it would be difficult to fix the date of the commencement of extravagance among the Roman ladies. All we can affirm with certainty is that there must have been extravagance in some shape or other, and it is interesting to note how, at this early stage of it, it had already begun to frighten men from marriage. Here are the reasonings of a bachelor, somewhat compressed from ‘Miles Gloriosus’:[242]—