Expansion of the Dialogue

The very characteristic passage Capt. 152–66 has already been accurately assessed by Leo in his note on 152; his cautious supposition ‘quae intercedunt Plautus addidisse videtur’ (‘Plautus seems to have added what comes in between’) will, I hope, be shown to be a certainty by the material assembled below from other plays. Admittedly the passage itself reveals its own origin. Nothing could be more Roman, more Plautine, than this content: the edendi exercitus (‘army of eating’); the provincia (‘province’); the squadrons of food devourers, with their typical personification and the geographical names belonging partly to the Italic, partly to the Roman, western sphere; the contrast between the imperator (‘general’) and the privatus (‘private’). It has also been noted that these farcical elements fit extremely badly into their context;1 such jokes are very discordant with Hegio’s mood.2 In a particularly useful observation, Leo has pointed out that before and after the insertion, the same phrase is repeated word for word: 152: nunc habe bonum animum and 167: habe modo bonum animum (‘now be of good cheer’). Meanwhile the dialogue has not progressed; it is taken up exactly at the spot where it left of to allow the jokes to be inserted. The same external indication of a Plautine expansion is found in Stich. 418 ∼435. In this passage, in order to prepare for the later part of the comedy, Plautus inserts a dialogue between Stichus and Epignomus followed by a monologue by Stichus. Both at the beginning of the insertion and at the end of the dialogue, the master says to the slave, repeating the instruction word for word: age abduce [112] hasce intro (‘come along, take these women inside’).

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