EPIDICUS BY PLAUTUS

Epidicus, a light-hearted comedy by Plautus about the machina� ons of a trickster slave and the inadequacies of his bumbling masters, appears here in both its original La� n and a sparkling new transla� on by Catherine Tracy. Epidicus, the cunning slave, is charged with fi nding his master’s illegi� mate daughter and the secret girlfriend of his master’s son, but a comedy of mistaken iden� � es and compe� ng interests ensues. Amid the mayhem, Epidicus aims to win his freedom whilst risking some of the grislier punishments the Romans infl icted on their unfortunate slaves.


From the Latin text of W. M. Lindsay, with vocabulary and grammar help by Catherine Tracy
[Note: for the acrostic argumentum (plot summary) that was added to the play perhaps around 150 CE, see page 173] 1. The letter "u": When writing, the Romans did not distinguish between the vowel "u" and the semivowel that was later written as "v" (which was pronounced like our "w"), and the Latin text of the play used in this volume (which is Lindsay's widely used edition from 1903) therefore uses the letter "u" for both the vowel and the semivowel. When written in upper case both the vowel and the semivowel are written like a capital "V". For example, in the word "iuuenis" (line 5 of the play), the first "u" is a vowel, while the second is a semivowel, and it would consequently be spelled "iuvenis" in most Latin textbooks (like its English derivative "juvenile"). The reason introductory Latin textbooks distinguish between the two is because it is believed to help beginners learn how to pronounce Latin correctly. Those whose Latin skills have reached the point where they can read this play should have no real trouble distinguishing the vowel "u" from the semivowel "u".

Variant verb forms:
a. Future in "-so": in this play we see the alternate future forms "faxo" (from "facio") and "adempsit" (instead of adimet, from the verb "adimo"). "Faxo" does not, however, simply substitute for "faciam" (which Plautus uses in its essential future sense), but tends to function as a statement of the speaker's certainty, so should be translated as "I promise" or "definitely".
d. Imperfect in "-ibam", etc.: The imperfect active forms of fourthconjugation verbs sometimes have no "-e-" before the tense signifier "-ba-"; thus in this play we see the form "exaudibam" (instead of the more standard "exaudiebam").

The Rhythm of Plautus
The actors in Plautus's plays often broke into song, in a variety of very complicated meters ("meter" refers to the rhythmic structure of the line) that continued the play's action rather than, like the choral interludes in Greek drama, being a break from the action. Furthermore, much of the dialogue was sung or spoken with accompaniment on one or more musical instruments (usually a woodwind instrument called a tibia and some sort of percussion); these sections of sung or chanted dialogue are commonly called in English "recitative", like the "spoken" parts of an opera that are sung to accompanying music but that are not selfcontained arias or songs. Songs and recitative made up nearly two-thirds of the lines in Plautus's plays, while the remaining third, written in a meter called iambic senarii, was spoken without music (Duckworth 1952(Duckworth /1971. Those who want to experience Epidicus in at least some of its metrical complexity are encouraged to consult a book on Latin meter (The Meters of Greek and Latin Poetry by Halporn et al. is a good place to start 2 ). Beginners who have learned the basic rules of elision and vowel length should practice reading the two most common meters of Plautus: trochaic septenarii (which was generally recited or chanted to the music of the tibia), and the spoken passages in the iambic senarius meter.

Trochaic Septenarii
A line of trochaic septenarii is theoretically made up of seven trochees plus an additional anceps (either long or short) syllable at the end. A basic trochee is a long syllable followed by a short syllable (-⋃), but in a line of Latin trochaic septenarii the short syllable in the first six trochees can be either long or short. An anceps syllable is usually represented by X, so that a trochee, where the so-called short syllable is actually an anceps, would be symbolized like this: -X.
Furthermore, since the important thing about syllable length in Latin meter is literally how long it took to pronounce, two short syllables can replace a long syllable, allowing a so-called trochee to potentially be replaced by a spondee (--), a dactyl (-⋃ ⋃), an anapaest (⋃ ⋃ -), a tribrach (⋃ ⋃ ⋃), or a proceleusmatic (⋃ ⋃ ⋃ ⋃). That so many variations are possible may sound anarchic, but with enough practice it is possible to get a sense of the unifying rhythm that makes each line of trochaic septenarii distinct from the other meters in the play. Plautus used meter changes to differentiate between different characters and different aspects of his plays, so getting a feel for the rhythm will add to an appreciation of the play. Almost the whole of scene 2 in Act 1 (lines  is written in trochaic septenarii. We can visualize the scansion of lines 104-105 as follows: • The letters printed in subscript are elided, which means they were either barely pronounced, or not pronounced at all. • A natural pause in the line, where a diaeresis (a word and the metrical foot ending in the same place) coincides with a pause in the sense of the line, is represented by this symbol: ║ and usually appears after the fourth foot. This diaeresis is one of the distinct aspects of a line of trochaic septenarii.
• In line 105, the "e" and the "o" of "meorum" are pronounced together as a long syllable (this is called synizesis).
• The final syllable of a line of verse can be either long or short regardless of the meter, since a reader or actor would pause at the ends of lines, thereby effectually lengthening a short final syllable.

Iambic Senarii
A line of iambic senarii is theoretically made up of six iambs. A basic iamb is a short syllable followed by a long: ⋃ -, but the "short" syllable of the iamb in Roman comedy is an anceps (can be either long or short) in all but the last foot; in fact, the anceps is more often long than short in Plautus's iambic senarii. To further complicate matters, any of the first four iambs in the line can be replaced with a dactyl (a long followed by two shorts: -⋃ ⋃) or with an anapaest (two shorts followed by a long: ⋃ ⋃ -). Since a long syllable can be replaced by two short syllables (except for the final syllable in a line of iambic senarii), one of Plautus's iambs can potentially look like this: ⋃ ⋃ ⋃ ⋃. We can visualize the scansion of lines 310-311, both in the iambic senarius meter, as follows: • The prominent caesurae are here marked with the same notation as for the diaeresis in the trochaic septenarii above: ║.
A caesura is the ending of a word in the middle of a foot; in Plautus a line of iambic senarii usually has a prominent caesura (where a pause in the sense of the line coincides with a caesura) in the third or fourth foot.
A dedicated student of Plautine meter will eventually need to learn the more complicated choral meters to fully experience the play, but beginners can start slow, and there is no need to feel discouraged if you can't scan a particular line. Aim instead to acquire a sense of the rhythm by scanning the less complicated lines. Timothy Moore's article on introducing students to the music of Roman comedy provides useful suggestions to instructors as to how best to approach teaching scansion in Plautus (Moore 2013).
A word of encouragement: Latin poets took occasional liberties with the strict rules of meter (see section 367: "Special Peculiarities" in Bennett's New Latin Grammar and Moore 2013: 229-230), which can make scansion more complicated. Furthermore, the plays of Plautus have not come down to us without numerous copying errors creeping in, and though experts attempt to fix these errors (and the faulty meter of a line can be a hint that an error has crept in), sometimes it can be quite challenging to work out the meter of a line. If you find you can't scan a line properly, move on and try another.

EPIDICVS, APOECIDES, PERIPHANES
Scene summary: Epidicus comes out and sees the old men before they see him.
He overhears Periphanes planning a marriage for Stratippocles and worrying about a rumour that Stratippocles has been devoting himself to a young lyreplaying slave-woman (we know she is Acropolistis). Epidicus hits on a scheme to cheat Periphanes out of the money needed to repay Stratippocles's debt. He pretends he's been searching for them all over town to tell them the news that the legion has arrived home from the war in Thebes, and that he has overheard two women who say that Stratippocles was planning on borrowing the money to buy, and then manumit, his lyre-playing girlfriend. Periphanes is very upset at his son for ruining his credit and wasting money like this, and gladly takes Epidicus's advice, which is to arrange a marriage for Stratippocles to some unnamed woman, and to buy Acropolistis himself but arrange for her to be sent out of the city and out of Stratippocles's reach. Epidicus persuades Periphanes not to involve himself personally in the purchase of the slave woman (ostensibly to ensure that Stratippocles won't find out that his own father has bought her), and promises him that he'll recoup the money and even make a profit by selling her on to a wealthy Rhodian soldier (perhaps the same soldier as the Euboean one Epidicus mentioned act 1, scene 2). Periphanes agrees to send his friend Apoecides with Epidicus to carry out the purchase. exentero, -are, -aui, -atus: "disembowel"; (in the context of a purse or store of money) "empty". Epidicus's imagery here suggests that Periphanes and his marsuppium are going to be cut open like an animal sacrifice in Roman religious ritual. 10 marsuppium, -ii (n.): "purse", "moneybag". 11 eccum = ecce + hunc: "look, there he is!". 12 ante (preposition + accusative): "in front of". 13 aedis/aedes, -is (f.): "building", "house" (often used in the plural, as here). 14 conspicor, -ari, -atus sum: "notice", "see".

EPIDICVS, STRATIPPOCLES, CHAERIBVLVS
Scene summary: Epidicus joins the two young men and tells Stratippocles that he's tricked Periphanes into giving him fifty minae, supposedly to buy Acropolistis. He says that he plans on tricking the pimp, who had sold him Acropolistis two days earlier, into telling Periphanes that he's now just sold a lyreplayer to Epidicus for the fifty minae. Epidicus gives the money to Stratippocles and explains the two deceptions he's played on Periphanes (firstly tricking him into thinking Acropolistis is his daughter Telestis so that he buys her, and secondly tricking him into giving him the purchase price for Acropolistis which will instead be used to pay Stratippocles's debt). Epidicus tells Stratippocles that Periphanes is arranging to get him married, and Stratippocles says he'll never agree to get married while his (new) girlfriend is alive. Epidicus tells Stratippocles that he'll hire a different lyre-player to pretend to be Acropolistis. niquid tibi hinc in spem referas: "don't go hoping otherwise". 6 opiddo (adverb): "very much", "completely". 7 hoc (again refers to the money Epidicus has been given by Periphanes). 8 pollingo, -ere, pollinxi, pollinctum: "wash a corpse", "prepare a body for burial". 9 nostri: "our people", "my ancestors" (given that slaves were considered, by slave-owners, no longer to have parents or ancestors, this may be Epidicus's resistance to the deracination (uprooting from native family) of slaves; more frivolously, Epidicus may also be referring to how the class of slaves has always behaved, or may be making a reference, as a comic seruos callidus, about how serui callidi in the tradition of Roman Comedy have always behaved -see Barbiero's forthcoming book: chapter 5). 10 inmortales = immortales. 11 luculentus, -a, -um: "bright", "brilliant". 12 ut: "how". 13 impetrabilis, -e: "pleasing", "successful". 14 migro, -are, -aui, -atum: "depart", "get going". 15 cesso, -are, -aui, -atum: "be remiss", "delay", "cease from". ut importem 16 in coloniam 17 hunc <meo> auspicio 18 commeatum. 19 mihi cesso quom 20 sto. sed quid hoc? ante aedis 21

PERIPHANES, APOECIDES, SERVOS
Scene summary: Periphanes admits in a soliloquy that he himself behaved badly when he was younger, so he shouldn't judge his son Stratippocles too harshly. Apoecides arrives with the hired lyre-player whom he believes is Acropolistis. Periphanes directs a slave to lead her into his house but instructs the slave to keep this low-class sex worker well away from the woman he believes is his virginal daughter Telestis. Apoecides raves about Epicicus's cleverness at (as he thinks) tricking the hired lyre-player into thinking she'd merely been hired for the day instead of having been bought. contemplo, -are, -aui, -atum: "observe", "contemplate". 6 suom = suum. 7 perspicio, -ere, perspexi, perspectum: "see through", "examine", "observe". 8 cor, cordis (n.): "heart" (square brackets enclose text that may not be entirely authentic). 9 meu' 24

PERIPHANES, APOECIDES, EPIDICVS
Scene summary: Periphanes is still enraged at Epidicus, and Apoecides is exhausted from helping him look for Epidicus, and he blames Periphanes. Epidicus calmly strolls up, and surprises Periphanes by demanding that the latter tie him up with the straps he's bought. Epidicus, with his hands bound, admits that he tricked Periphanes into paying thirty minae to buy Stratippocles's lyre-playing girlfriend (Acropolistis) and to pretend that she was his daughter Telestis. Epidicus also admits that he gave Stratippocles the fifty minae that Periphanes had meant to be given to the pimp in exchange for Acropolistis. Epidicus says Periphanes shouldn't yell at him so angrily, as though he were merely a slave, saying that he has earned his freedom and that Periphanes will understand if he goes into his house. When Periphanes sees the real Telestis, he feels badly for having been so angry at Epidicus and wants to untie him. Epidicus, milking Periphanes's gratitude and guilt as much as he can, won't let him untie the bonds until Periphanes has begged his pardon, promised him some new clothes, promised to free him, and to provide for him as his freedman. Epidicus magnanimously accepts these offers and allows Periphanes to untie him. The play ends with the troop of actors celebrating the man (Epidicus) who has won his freedom through bad behaviour, and they ask the audience for a round of applause.