Plautus Trinummus prologue.pr

Henry Thomas Riley (Translator)

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

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Current edition Perseus

Trinummus: The Three Pieces of Money (English) (Plautus. The Comedies of Plautus, Volume 1. Riley, Henry Thomas, translator. London: G. Bell and Sons, Ltd., 1912.)

Editions (1)
Trinummus Perseus (Plautus. Plauti Comoediae, Volume 2. Leo, Friedrich, editor. Berlin: Weidmann, 1896.) — prologue.pr focus

Notes on the current edition

Trinummus: The Three Pieces of Money

1. The Prologue: This Prologue is one of the few figurative ones to be found in the Comedies of Plautus. He appropriately represents Luxury as introducing her daughter Poverty to the abode of the dissipated Lesbonicus. Claudian has a somewhat similar passage in his poem to Rufinus:
Et Luxus, populator opum, cui, semper adhaerens,
Infelix humili gressu comitatur Egestas.
And Luxury, the waster of wealth, whom, ever attending, wretched Poverty accompanies with humble step. It has been justly observed, that Plautus here avoids a fault which he often falls into, of acquainting the audience with too much of the plot.
2. Philemon wrote it: Not only Philemon, but Menander also, wrote a play, entitled the Treasure.
3. In Latin: Barbare We learn from Festus, and other authors, that the Greeks were in the habit of calling all nations, without exception, but themselves, barbarians. Hence the present expression, which literally meant into barbarous language.