Plautus (254 BC - 184 BC)

Plautus

Titus Maccius Plautus, more commonly simply Plautus, was an ancient Roman playwright and comedian.

Little is known about his life, but it is believed that as a young man he worked as a stage master, stage designer, and possibly an actor. In time, Plautus went into the merchant business and, as far as is known, worked in a mill after the collapse of his enterprise. In his spare time he studied Greek dramaturgy, and by the age of forty had finally achieved success as a playwright whose comedies were the most popular dramatic works of their time.

Plautus's plays were largely borrowed from Greek works belonging to the New Comedy style. They were essentially social comedies of manners, which usually told of the domestic life of the middle and upper classes. But they also featured and played a significant role in them obliging slaves, and often young lovers, a strict father, a pimp, military men, etc. Plautus talentedly adapted Greek works for the Roman audience. Instead of exquisite Greek, Plautus deliberately used simple Latin, even street language, which was understandable to the lower classes that made up the bulk of his audience. The playwright had an excellent mastery of the art of theater and knew exactly what to include and what to change in the play to entertain the audience and at the same time not to hurt the tastes and ambitions of the upper classes.

Titus Maccius Plautus is one of the greatest playwrights of ancient Rome and was even granted Roman citizenship as a reward. Of his 130 plays have reached our time only twenty. Many great playwrights of the following centuries, including Shakespeare, based their comedies on Plautus' plots.