Plautus Bacchides 2.3

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.) — 2.3 focus

Notes on the current edition

Bacchides, or The Twin Sisters

1. Gold is requisite: Opus est chryso Chrysalo. He borrows the Greek word χρυσὸσ gold, and plays on his own name, which has that word for its origin.
2. Ram of Phryxus: The Ram with the golden fleece carried Phryxus in safety over the Hellespont; but his sister Helle fell off its back on the passage, from which that arm of the sea derived its name. Jason recovered the golden fleece by the aid of Medea. The story of Helle and Phryxus is related at length in the Fasti and the Metamorphoses of Ovid.
3. Even to the quick: Ad vivam cutem—literally, to the living skin.
4. You’ve brought me to: Aspersisti aquam—literally, you have sprinkled water on me, in allusion to the refreshing effects of water in cases of faintness.
5. Well as a boxer: Pancratice atque athletice—literally, boxing-like and wrestler-like.
6. Three obols: The obolus was a very small Greek silver coin. Its value was something more than three-halfpence of our money.
7. The token: Symbolum was some object which a person delivered to another, in order to serve as a mark, sign, or token to a third person, that he was to do something which had been previously agreed upon.
8. Appointed delegates: Recuperatores were certain commissioners or judges-delegate, who were usually named by the Praetor, at Rome and in the provinces, to decide matters in dispute, such as disagreements about money and property; also to assess the damages where a wrong had been done; to enquire whether a man was freeborn or not; or, to which of two claimants civic honours properly belonged.
9. Regular hawk’s nest: Accipitrina. This word is given by Ritschel, in place of the old reading accipe trina, which made nonsense. The word does not seem to occur elsewhere.
10. An Autolycus: Autolycus was the son of Mercury and the grand-father of Ulysses. He was noted for his thievish propensities, and was in the habit of painting the cattle which he had stolen of another colour, in order that they might not be recognized.
11. Breaks my heart: Laedit latus — literally, hurts my sides, or in other words, gives me a twitch.
12. Name of Archidemides: He puns upon the name of Archidemides, which was really derived from the Greek ἄρχομαι, to govern, and δημὰς, the people, To adapt his pun, however, to the taste of a Roman audience he would make out that it was in part a compound of the Latin word demo, to filch or take away.
13. A priest there: St. Paul, when he visited Ephesus, found Diana still enthroned there in the full blaze of her glory. Her temple was esteemed one of the wonders of the world.
14. Son of Megalobyzus: The priests of Diana at Ephesus are supposed to have been eunuchs, and the priestesses virgins. Taubmann thinks that Megabyzus, which ought to be read here, was a general name of the priests of Diana; and that the words Megabyzi filius, a son of Megabyzus, have the same import as the word Megabyzus itself. It may, however, mean that Theotimus was a priest, and not of necessity that his father was so.
15. More dear to me: The pun here perpetrated answers equally well in English.
16. At the public expense: The ancients used to place a guard, at the public expense, at the gates of their temples, as great quantities of property or value were there deposited as in places of safety.
17. Crucisalus: Anticipating the punishment of the cross, which was often inflicted on slaves, he coins an epithet, crucisalus, cross-struggler, for himself, and then compares it with his own name.
18. For a punishment: He means to say, that his master will not be able to chastise him without punishing himself, in some measure, by the loss of the rods that will be wasted on his back.