Titus Maccius Plautus

Titus Maccius Plautus (PLAW-təs; c. 254 – 184 BC) was a Roman playwright of the Old Latin period. His comedies are the earliest Latin literary works to have survived in their entirety. He wrote Palliata comoedia, the genre devised by Livius Andronicus, the innovator of Latin literature. The word Plautine (PLAW-tyne) refers to both Plautus's own works and works similar to or influenced by his.

He influenced some of the greatest figures in literature, including Shakespeare and Molière (The Miser is partly modeled after Plautus's Aulularia).

Biography

Not much is known about Plautus's early life. It is believed that he was born in Sarsina, a small town in what is now Emilia-Romagna in northern Italy (in the ancient region of Umbria, larger than the modern administrative division of Italy), around 254 BC. According to Morris Marples, Plautus worked as a stage-carpenter or scene-shifter in his early years. It is from this work, perhaps, that his love of the theater originated. His acting talent was eventually discovered; and he adopted the nomen "Maccius" (from Maccus, a clownish stock character in Atellan Farce) and agnomen "Plautus" ("trampled flat", usually in reference to "flat-footed" but sometimes intending "flat-eared" like the ears of a hound). Tradition holds that he made enough money to go into the nautical business, but that the venture collapsed. He is then said to have worked as a manual laborer and to have studied Greek drama—particularly the New Comedy of Menander—in his leisure. His studies allowed him to write his plays, which were released between c. 205 and 184 BC. Plautus attained such popularity that his name alone became a hallmark of theatrical success.