Plautus Bacchides 1.2

Henry Thomas Riley (Translator)

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Bacchides. Plautus. Henry Thomas Riley (Translator). London. 1912.

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Current edition Perseus

Bacchides, or The Twin Sisters (English) (Plautus. The Comedies of Plautus, Volume 1. Riley, Henry Thomas, translator. London: G. Bell and Sons, Ltd., 1912.)

Editions (1)
Bacchides Perseus (Plautus. Plauti Comoediae, Volume 1. Leo, Friedrich, editor. Berlin: Weidmann, 1895.) — 1.2 focus

Notes on the current edition

Bacchides, or The Twin Sisters

1. Following you in silence: We must not be surprised to find Lydus a Lydian slave, as his name imports, acting as the paedagogus, or tutor, of Pistoclerus. Among the wealthy, the sons of the family were committed to the paedagogi at their sixth or seventh year, and of course that officer was selected from the most trustworthy and most learned among the slaves. The youths remained under the tutor till they reached the years of puberty. His duty was rather to watch and protect them and accompany them to their school and the gymnasium or palaestra, the place of exercise, than to instruct them himself; indeed; the praeceptores, or teachers, are expressly distinguished by Quintilian from the paedagogi, or conductors of the youths. Eunuchs were sometimes appointed to this office. Among the Romans, a tutor attended on both boys and girls very frequently, as they were not confined at home according to the Grecian custom. During the Empire, much care was taken in the training of the paedagogi.
2. In this dress: He has put on the malacum pallium, the soft garment, mentioned in l. 71, as being about to join the entertainment which he is providing.
3. Lycurgus himself: He says that such company is enough to corrupt Lycurgus himself, a man of the most moral and strict habits. He was the lawgiver of Sparta.
4. What a barbarian: He alludes to Lydia, the country of Lydus, which was barbara.
5. Than Thales himself: Thales of Miletus was one of the seven wise men of Greece. He was the founder of the Ionic sect of philosophers.
6. Potitius, the foreigner: Barbaro signifies Roman, the scene being in Attica. We learn from St. Augustine that the Potitii received the epithet of stulti, unwise, from the following circumstance. They were the hereditary priests of Hercules, at Rome. Wishing to lighten their duties, they instructed some slaves in their office, for which, by the wrath of the Divinity twelve families of them were destroyed in one night.
7. Suited for school: There is here a Paronomasia, or jingle upon the resemblance of the words Lyde, Lydus, and ludo, a school.
8. He no longer calls: He is shocked at the want of respect shown to him by his pupil.
9. Beware of mischief: This is a threat of vengeance if Lydus presumes to interfere any further.
10. With heated blood: Plenus sanguinis. Literally, full of blood.
11. You a Linus: Linus instructed Hercules in music, and was slain by his scholar with his musical instrument.
12. Become a Phœnix: Phœnix was the preceptor who attended Achilles to the Siege of Troy, and brought the account of his death to his father Peleus.
13. Is lost to shame: Hic vereri perdidit. Literally, He has lost how to be ashamed.
14. Hold your tongue: The interval between this Act and the next is filled up with the time necessary for preparing the entertainment which Pistoclerus is giving to Bacchis and her sister.