SOURCE: James Tatum, in an introduction to Plautus: The Darker Comedies, translated by James Tatum, The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1983, pp. 1-13.

In the following excerpt, Tatum explains that three of Plautus's comedies—Bacchides, Casina, and Truculentus—are less familiar today than his others because of their unconvential use of the family and love. Tatum briefly discusses the more cynical aspects of each play and comments on the problems related to the translation and production of these plays.

The Playwright and His World

Our knowledge of the literary history of Greece and Rome often depends on little evidence.¹ In the case of Titus Maccius Plautus that evidence is particularly meager, anecdotal, and suspect. He seems to have stood still scarcely long enough to write down the lines of his comedies. Like one of his own harried characters, he ran across the stage of Roman life and literature, from...