Plautus Casina 2.6

Henry Thomas Riley (Translator)

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Casina. Plautus. Henry Thomas Riley (Translator). London. 1913.

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Current edition Perseus

Casina, or The Stratagem Defeated (English) (Plautus. The Comedies of Plautus, Volume 2. Riley, Henry Thomas, translator. London: G. Bell and Sons, Ltd., 1913.)

Editions (1)
Casina Perseus (Plautus. Plauti Comoediae, Volume 1. Leo, Friedrich, editor. Berlin: Weidmann, 1895.) — 2.6 focus

Notes on the current edition

Casina, or The Stratagem Defeated

1. The Metian gate: As he writes for a Roman audience, the author does not see any impropriety in speaking of the Metian gate, although the scene is at Athens . The bodies of the dead were burned outside of the Metian or Esquiline gate.
2. Part of line 361 in the Latin.
3. Learned to misbehave: As an indecent allusion is covertly made here, the translation of the passage is somewhat modified.
4. While I meant for myself: Wishing to correct himself, in his confusion he only gets deeper. He means to say. While I meant for him, I said myself.
5. For myself, i’ faith: For the third time he commits the came mistake.
6. Endure the chain: Canis. Literally, the dog. This was the small chain, which was also called catillus. It has been referred to in a previous Note.
7. The bilboes: Furcam.
8. Descendants of Hercules: Pausanias says that the sons of Aristo demus and Cresphontes drew lots, on condition that the party whose lot came first out of the urn should receive Messenia, and the other Lacedaemon. Temenus, favouring Cresphontes, placed the lots in the water, taking care that the one belonging to Cresphontes should be of baked clay, while the other was of clay only dried in the sun, which of course melted on coming in contact with the water; by which stratagem Cresphontes gained possession of Messenia. Apollodorus relates the same story in a different manner. He says that Temenus, Procles and Eurysthenes, the sons of Aristodemus, jointly, and Cresphontes, drew lots, on condition that the one whose lot should appear first should have Argos, the second have Lacedaemon, and the third Messenia. Cresphlontes having long set his mind upon gaining Messenia, had his lot made of unbaked clay, which melted; the others being taken out, there was no necessity to look for the remaining one, and thus the trick succeeded.
9. Thrice-dotted: Literatus. Lambinus thinks that this alludes to his back being marked by stripes. There is, however, more reason to believe that it refers to the custom of branding slaves and criminals. The Greeks marked criminals on the forehead with Θ, the beginning of the word θάνατος, to denote that they were dead in law.
10. Part of line 404 in the Latin.
11. Part of line 413 in the Latin.