Plautus Captivi 3.4

Henry Thomas Riley (Translator)

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

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Current edition Perseus

Captivi: The Captives (English) (Plautus. The Comedies of Plautus, Volume 1. Riley, Henry Thomas, translator. London: G. Bell and Sons, Ltd., 1912.)

Editions (1)
Captivi Perseus (Plautus. Plauti Comoediae, Volume 1. Leo, Friedrich, editor. Berlin: Weidmann, 1895.) — 3.4 focus

Notes on the current edition

Captivi: The Captives

1. Which is spit out: Some would render the words qui sputatur which is spit upon, and fancy that they find authorities in the ancient writers for thinking that epilepsy was treated by spitting upon the patient. However, it seems much more probable, that the notion was that epilepsy was cured by the patient himself spitting out the noxious saliva; and that the word sputatur means, is spit out, i. e. is cured by spitting. Celsus thus describes the comitialis morbus, epilepsy, or falling sickness: The person seized, suddenly falls down; foam drops from the mouth; then, after a little time, he comes to himself, and gets up again without any assistance. Pliny, in his Natural History, B. 38, c. 4, says: Despuimus comitiales morbos, hoc est, contagia regerimus, We spit out the epilepsy, that is, we avert the contagion. This is said, probably, in reference to a belief, that on seeing an epileptic person, if we spit, we shall avoid the contagion; but it by no means follows that the person so doing must spit upon the epileptic person. We read in the first Book of Samuel, ch. xxi., ver. 12: And David laid up these words in his heart, and was sore afraid of Achish, the King of Gath. And he changed his behaviour before them, and feigned himself mad in their hands, and scrabbled on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle fall down on his beard. He probably pretended to be attacked with epileptic fits. In fact, after due examination, there seems little doubt that it was a common notion with the ancients that the distemper was discharged with the saliva.
2. To be spit upon: Aristophontes has understood the words, qui sputatur, in the sense of which is spit upon, and asks Tyndarus if he affirms that he is afflicted with a disease which requires such treatment. Hegio, to pacify him, and to show off his medical knowledge, tells him that it has proved beneficial in some diseases to be so treated; but he does not go so far as to say what those diseases were. One malady, called herpes, or spreading ulcer, was said to be highly contagious, but capable of being cured by applications of saliva. Some Commentators here quote the method which our Saviour adopted in curing the blind man at Bethsaida: And he took the blind man by the hand, and led him out of the town: and when he had spat on his eyes and put his hands upon him, he asked him if he saw aught. St. Mark, ch. viii., ver. 23. And again, the account given in the ninth chapter of St. John, ver. 6: When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay. It may be possible that our Saviour thought fit to adopt these forms, in imitation of some of the methods of treating diseases in those times; though, of course, his transcendant power did not require their agency Rost, in his Commentaries on Plautus, has a very learned disquisition on the meaning of the present passage.
3. Alcmaeon, and Orestes, and Lycurgus: He alludes to these three persons as being three of the most celebrated men of antiquity that were attacked with frenzy. Orestes slew his mother, Clytemnestra; Alcmaeon killed his mother, Eriphyle; and Lycurgus, King of Thrace, on slighting the worship of Bacchus, was afflicted with madness, in a fit of which he hewed off his own legs with a hatchet.
4. When he’s a slave: Slaves were not considered to have any legal existence; and, therefore, to have neither parents or relations.
5. That I am Liber: Aristophontes asks him if he means to assert that he was born a free man, liber. As Liber was also a name of Bacchus, Tyndarus quibbles, and says, I did not assert that I am Liber, but that I am Philocrates. In consequence of the idiom of the Latin language, his answer (non equidem me Liberum, sed Philocratem esse aio) will admit of another quibble, and may be read as meaning, I did not say that I am a free man, but that Philocrates is. This maybe readily seen by the Latin scholar, but is not so easily explained to the English reader.
6. Black bile: A superabundance of the bile was supposed to be productive of melancholy madness. The word melancholy is from the Greek μελαγχολιὰ, black bile.
7. Black pitch: He alludes to a frightful punishment inflicted upon malefactors by the Romans. They were either smeared over with burning pitch, or were first covered with pitch, which was then set fire to. This punishment is supposed to have been often inflicted upon the early Christians. Juvenal alludes to it in his First Satire, l. 155:
Pone Tigellinum, taedâ lucebis in illâ,
Quâ stantes ardent, qui fixo gutture fumant.
 Describe Tigellinus [an infamous minister of Nero], and you shall give a light by those torches, in which those stand and burn who send forth smoke with a stake driven into their throat.
8. Part of line 599 in the Latin.
9. Why are you making signs: Abnutas. The verb abnuto means, to nod to a person that he may desist. Tyndarus thinks that by this time Aristophontes must surely understand the plan that has been devised for the escape of Philocrates; and, as he is about to step aside to speak with Hegio, he makes a sign, requesting him to stop short in his contradiction of what he has asserted.
10. The dress only: By ornamenta he means the dress of Tragedy. The dresses of Comedy were essentially different from those of Tragedy. He means to say, the man is mad; if he had only the Tragic garb on, you might take him for Ajax Telamon in his frenzy. On being refused the arms of Achilles, Ajax became mad, and slaughtered a flock of sheep fancying that they were Ulysses and the sons of Atreus.
11. The sacrifice and the stone: We learn from Livy, that in the most ancient times the animal for sacrifice was killed by being struck with a stone; to stand between the victim and the stone, would consequently imply, to be in a position of extreme danger.
12. But where is he: Tyndarus has probably betaken himself to some corner of the stage, and Aristophontes misses him from his former position.
13. Cut asunder: Deruncinatus means, literally, cut asunder with a runcina, or saw.
14. Have they imposed upon me: Os sublevere offuciis. Literally painted my face with varnish. This expression is probably derived from the practice of persons concealing, their defects, by painting over spots or freckles in the face for the purpose of hiding them.
15. Colaphus, Cordalio, Corax: These are the names of slaves Colaphus means, also, a blow with the fist. Corax was the Greek name for a crow, and was probably given to a black slave.
16. To gather faggots: He asks this question because cords, lora, were necessary for the purpose of binding up faggots.