Plautus Miles Gloriosus 3.2

Henry Thomas Riley (Translator)

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Miles Gloriosus. Plautus. Henry Thomas Riley (Translator). London. 1912.

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Current edition Perseus

Miles Gloriosus, or The Braggart Captain (English) (Plautus. The Comedies of Plautus, Volume 1. Riley, Henry Thomas, translator. London: G. Bell and Sons, Ltd., 1912.)

Editions (1)
Miles Gloriosus Perseus (Plautus. Plauti Comoediae, Volume 2. Leo, Friedrich, editor. Berlin: Weidmann, 1896.) — 3.2 focus

Notes on the current edition

Miles Gloriosus, or The Braggart Captain

1. Subject for Acheron: Acherunticus, an inhabitant of Acheron, meaning one on the very verge of the grave.
2. A bier’s-man: The bodies of the more respectable people were carried to the grave on a kind of couch, which was called feretrum, or capulus; whence the present term capularis, a subject for the capulus. The bodies of poor citizens and slaves were carried on a kind of bier, called sandapila. Oudendorp and Becker think, however, that the word capulus means a coffin of wood or of stone, and not the same as feretrum, a couch, or bier. The old gentleman is very naturally somewhat offended at the remark of Pleusicles.
3. At Animula: The people of Apulia , in the south of Italy , were noted for their clownish manners. Animula, as we learn from Festus, was a little town in that country; probably its inhabitants were the most remarkable of all for their rusticity. Absurdities and anachronisms not unfrequently occur in our author. There is something absurd in a merry old gentleman of Ephesus going all the way to Animula for a simile.
4. Double distilled gold: Aurichalco probably signifies here, as in some other passages, a fabulous metal of more value than even gold. Orichalcum, however, properly means either one of the ores of copper, or a metallic compound much used by the ancients, which was probably brass, formed by the combination of zinc ore and copper. Supposing gold to be one of its constituents, they corrupted its original name, orichalcum, into aurichalcum. The former word is supposed by the author of the article orichalcum, in Dr. Smith’s Dictionary, to have been a compound of ὄροσ and χαλκὸς, mountain bronze, so called from fusing copper with an ore as found in the mountains. Contra, in this sentence, has the meaning of to or against, in staking for a bet: three men against their weight in gold; a horse to a hen, as the betting men sometimes say.
5. The Zephyr breeze: Literally, Favonius, one of the names of the West wind.
6. First-rate trencher-man: Parasitus cannot be here intended to be used in a bad sense, as he is speaking of his own merits. It must mean a boon-companion or jolly fellow.
7. To be free: There is a play on the word liber, here, which means either a child, or a free person. He says that it is much more pleasant to be liberum(a free person), than to be the father of a liberum(a child). The word liber, meaning a child, is very rarely used in the singular number. The remark of Pleusicles is rather modified in the translation.
8. Under-clothes: The tunica was that part of the clothing which was next to the skin.
9. On the Calends: He alludes to the Calends of March, which, as the commencement of the old Roman year, was particularly celebrated by the Roman matrons, who then gave presents to each other, and received them from their husbands. The festival was called Matronalia, and sacrifices were offered to Juno Lucina, the guardian of pregnant women. See the Fasti of Ovid, B. 3, l. 257 .
10. On the Quinquatrus: The first day of the Quinquatrus, or five-day feast, was on the 19th of March. Festus says, that it had its name from its beginning on the fifth day after the Ides. See the Fasti of Ovid, B. 3, l. 810 . This festival was sacred to Minerva.
11. To the sorceress: The praecantrix was a woman who, by her incantations, was powerful to avert evil. Conjectrix was a female who interpreted dreams. Ariola was supposed to be an inspired prophetess. Aruspica was a female who divined by means of the entrails, lightning, and other phenomena. Piatrix was the woman who purified the company and performed the expiations, on the day on which the child received its name.
12. For long has: A critic in the St. James’s Magazine for January, 1763, says, on this point, that these various importunities, since they relate to a state of things now entirely passed away, lose all their effect on the reader;
but when such insinuating addresses tend to procure a footboy, or a new year’s gift, or something handsome to give to servants, or to the wet-nurse, or the Methodist preacher, there is no married man whatever but would enter directly into the spirit of such requests.
This sweeping remark may possibly be somewhat less remote from truth than it is from gallantry to the fair sex.
13. The mattress-maker: Toraria seems to be the bed, or mattress-maker. Other editions have ceraria, the woman who supplies wax candles for sacrifice. Others, again, have gerula, the nursemaid that carries the children.
14. The young slaves: The vernae were the slaves that were born under the master’s roof. They were more indulged than the other slaves, and were noted for their extreme impudence and presumption.
15. With what a brow: The reference here may probably be to the evil eye, which, of injurious effect at all times, would be supposed to be particularly so in the case of a nurse.
16. To share the entrails: It was the custom, after their portions had been sacrificed to the Gods, to reserve a part of the entrails for the persons who sacrificed. These invited their dearest and most intimate friends to partake of them, or, if they could not attend, were in the habit of sending their share to them. The old man here flatters himself that he is a general favorite, although, bye and bye, he hints a suspicion that, being a rich old bachelor, the love of his friends is not quite disinterested.
17. Market-officer: Agoranomus was the name of a public officer among the Greeks, who, like the aedilis plebis at Rome , had the inspection or the wares offered for sale in the public markets.
18. I am content with: Nil me paenitet; I am not dissatisfied with.
19. Steer my own course: Meo rem remigio gero;literally, I carry on my own business with my own staff of rowers. The rowers were frequently slaves, and of course were kept in strict subordination. He alludes to the regularity of his household, where everything is done in its proper time and place, and the promptness with which he is in the habit of being obeyed. We need hardly remark that most of the servi, or servants, were slaves.
20. Is enough for me: Mihi quidvis sat est seem to have been an antiquated and hackneyed expression, used by philosophers and old-fashioned people, to imply their habits of self-denial and frugality.
21. Won’t you now: He tells him to have done with such stale canting expressions, which are now worn threadbare, and have descended to the tables of the mob. Indeed, he says right, for nothing can be more annoying than pretended refusals, and bowings and scrapings, where they are merely an affectation of a modesty, humility, or self-denial that is not really felt.
22. Cant of the vulgar: The proletarii were the poorest class of the free citizens, who, according to Livy, were possessed of less than eleven thousand asses, and could serve the state, not with money, but with their children ( proles).
23. This conger’s good: Lampreys and conger eels were very much esteemed by the Romans. Probably the conger was considered best when eaten cold.
24. Half their bodies: This would be the more easily done when we remember that the guests were reclining on the triclinium, or couch, which was above the level of the table on which the viands were placed.
25. Be fleeced quite close: By his mention of the Captain’s long locks, he seems to intend a pun on the word admutilo, to bamboozle or cajole, which, literally, signifies to clip, or shave close.
26. Of Alexander: Alexander, from two Greek words, signifying the brave man, was one of the names of Paris , the son of Priam, who was remarkable for his beauty, which captivated Helen.
27. All the women: The Parasite quizzes him upon this weak point in the First Act.
28. Who could wish: The meaning of Periplecomenus seems to be that the Captain has been but too successful in his intrigues, and that many a husband could wish that what Palaestrio says were false.
29. One that has: Some Commentators think that lautam here means one who has borne children, and who has bathed ( lautus fuerit), as was the custom immediately after delivery. As, however, Palaestrio has said before that the female required must be a Courtesan, it surely could not matter whether she had had children or not. It probably means either one of elegant manners, and who has made good use of her experience, in contradistinction to a novice, who is a mere raw country wench, or else one in easy circumstances, and not a mere pauper.
30. Sober but plump: His answer is, he wants to find a woman who is sicca, probably in the sense of sober; but, as the same word means dry, he adds, antithetically, at succidam, but juicy, full of the plumpness and briskness of youth. Scaliger absolutely thinks that sicca means one not given to the habit of spitting.!!
31. The fashion of matrons: The vitta was a band which encircled the head, and served to confine the tresses of the hair. It was worn by maidens, and by married women also, among the Romans; but that assumed on the day of marriage was of a different form from that used by the virgins. It was not worn by women of light character, or even by the libertinae, or liberated female slaves; so that it was not only deemed an emblem of chastity, but of freedom also. White and purple are among the colours of the vitta which we find mentioned.