Plautus: Bacchides

Plautus’ Bacchides is one of the best and most typical of his plays which in its treatment of character, theme and dialogue provides an excellent introduction to Plautus. Since the rediscovery of a passage from its Greek model, Menander’s Dis Exapaton, it is now in the fore-front of scholarly discussion as direct comparisons can now be made of style and methods. The line-by-line verse translation aims to reproduce the sense and also to represent Plautus’ linguistic liveliness and metrical variety, while the commentary explores the literary and dramatic qualities of the play in the light of modern scholarship. The Dis Exapaton fragment is given in text and translation.