Plautus
Overview
Titus Maccius Plautus commonly known as "Plautus", was a Roman
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

 playwright
Playwright
A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...

 of the Old Latin
Old Latin
Old Latin refers to the Latin language in the period before the age of Classical Latin; that is, all Latin before 75 BC...

 period. His comedies
Comedy
Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...

 are the earliest surviving intact works in Latin literature
Latin literature
Latin literature includes the essays, histories, poems, plays, and other writings of the ancient Romans. In many ways, it seems to be a continuation of Greek literature, using many of the same forms...

. He wrote Palliata comoedia
Fabula palliata
Fabula palliata or Palliata are names assigned by the Romans to a genre of comedy that reworked in Latin the themes of Greek New Comedy. The genre began with the comedies of Livius Andronicus, who also initiated Roman literature and Roman drama...

, the genre devised by the innovator of Latin literature, Livius Andronicus
Livius Andronicus
Lucius Livius Andronicus , not to be confused with the later historian Livy, was a Greco-Roman dramatist and epic poet of the Old Latin period. He began as an educator in the service of a noble family at Rome by translating Greek works into Latin, including Homer’s Odyssey. They were meant at...

. The word Plautine (icon) is used to refer to Plautus's works or works similar to or influenced by his.
Not much is known about Titus Maccius Plautus' early life. It is believed that he was born in Sarsina
Sarsina
Sarsina is an Italian town situated in the province of Forlì-Cesena, Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy. Its territory is included in the Tuscan-Romagnolo Apennines.-History:...

, a small town in Umbria in central Italy, in around 254 BC.
Quotations

Oh, are not the pleasures in life, in this daily round, trifling compared with the pains!

Amphitryon, Act II, scene ii.

Courage is the very best gift of all; courage stands before everything, it does, it does! It is what maintains and preserves our liberty, safety, life, and our homes and parents, our country and children. Courage comprises all things: a man with courage has every blessing.

Amphitryon, Act II, scene ii.

Things which you do not hope happen more frequently than things which you do hope.

Mostellaria, Act I, scene iii, line 40

Nothing is more wretched than a guilty conscience.

Mostellaria, Act V, scene i, line 14.

Drink, live like the Greeks, eat, gorge.

From the Latin "Bibite, pergraecamini, ese, ecfercite vos."

Nothing is there more friendly to a man than a friend in need.

Epidicus, Act III, sc. iii, l. 44.

What is yours is mine, and all mine is yours.

Trinummus, Act II, sc. ii, l. 48

Not by age but by capacity is wisdom acquired.

Trinummus, Act II, sc. ii, l. 88

There are occasions when it is undoubtedly better to incur loss than to make gain.

Captivi, Act II, sc. ii, l, 77

Patience is the best remedy for every trouble.

Rudens, Act II, sc. v, l. 71

 
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