For Thursday, September 21, please read Plautus' The Prisoners (Captivi). Cite a line from this play that shows something about Roman society or Roman history one might not learn from a more conventional historical source, e.g., something about day-to-day life in Rome, something about Roman values, or something about the Roman sense of humor. Explain why you chose this particular line. Alternatively, note something Plautus has done with one of the five "narrative essentials" (plot, character, theme, setting, and tone) that shows something important about Roman history.
Monday, September 18, 2023
More Plautus (The Prisoners)
For Thursday, September 21, please read Plautus' The Prisoners (Captivi). Cite a line from this play that shows something about Roman society or Roman history one might not learn from a more conventional historical source, e.g., something about day-to-day life in Rome, something about Roman values, or something about the Roman sense of humor. Explain why you chose this particular line. Alternatively, note something Plautus has done with one of the five "narrative essentials" (plot, character, theme, setting, and tone) that shows something important about Roman history.
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ReplyDeleteHegio: No, no, go hunt your hare: you've got only a hedge-hog so far. For it is a rocky road my table travels.
ReplyDeleteI like this line because this is a humorous part in Act One. Hegio and Erg seem to be poking fun at each other. It was Erg’s birthday and he was saying how they should have a dinner party at Hegio’s house because it was his birthday. Then they started to poke fun at each other in the sense of how much Hegio has and was telling Erg if you're happy with little we can have your birthday at my house. Erg would even go to lengths of making fun of Hegio’s food that he would serve at his birthday. It was quite humorous to see how the Roman people would make fun of each other similarly to how friends today would make fun of each other. I picked this line because a lot of people might think Rome to be a very serious place where humor might have been sparse but Rome was just as funny as we are today in our plays. However, not just the line I chose but the whole of Act One with Erg and Hegio was quite a humorous and serious bout of solid play writing. One thing that Plautus has done with one of the five “narrative essentials” is how the tone in Act One kind of shows us something important about relationships between friends. The role of friends have been the same throughout the centuries and you see that Erg and Hegio are great friends who use humor to make fun of one another. The tone of Act One is humorous and being able to conduct a humorous tone between friends is important. Rome seems to always be in some kind of battle or hard times and having plays that have a tone of humor can lighten up the mood of the public. Plautus made sure that humor was important to the Roman people in the plays that he applied humor to. Tone plays a huge part in a play and Plautus made sure that tone was implemented in his plays making it so Roman people that tone is important in their daily lives.
Erg: "Well, now for the harbour. That's where my one hope is, gastronomically speaking, if that oozes away, I'll come back here to the old man's terror of a meal."
ReplyDeleteThis line is humorous, as is a lot of Erg's lines in this play. Erg is a parasite that searches for food, it seems, day and night. In this play, Plautus makes light of the fact that a lot of people in Rome were forced to be parasites in order to get food and basic necessities, while men like Hegio were living comfortably in their houses and estates. I think it's ironic that even though Erg is starving, he would rather search high and low for food than eat Hergio's "terror of a meal."
-Lauren Bland
The line I chose was, “What I ask you to do is to give me back the slave I left here as security for myself—he was always ready to sacrifice himself for me!—so that I can reward him for his kindnesses”.
ReplyDeleteSlaves in Roman society were utilized in the same ways as they were not too long ago, but slaves now were under the impression to do everything for their masters. In Roman society, they did all the things that were required of them, whether that was cropping in the fields, fetching something of importance to their owner, or even sacrificing their life for the greater good of their owner. We have seen in instances prior for whatever reasonings, slaves taking their own lives, so their owner is spared, or so that the owner could have a ‘fresh start’. Slaves could come at a premium, and to these more powerful slave owners in Roman history, slaves and their lives could be recycled, or the owners could acquire more slaves, but the overall life of the slave owner, could not. Sometimes slaves would also take responsibility for their owner's actions, particularly if the actions were through the senate, or if the senate had any influence on decisions to spare or kill one's life.
- Nile Hesson
The lines I chose were,
ReplyDeleteHegio: What was his name?
Philocr. Ducatsdoubloonsandpiecesofeightson.
Hegio: A sort of name applied to him on account of his money, I take it.
Philocr. (apparently struck by a new idea) Lord, no! on account of his being so greedy and grasping, sir.
I’m not sure if this could be specifically categorized as Roman humor or just straight sarcasm, but I found it kind of funny. Hegio seemed to be interrogating Philocrates about his father and the Goldfield family, whilst thinking he was a slave of their estate. When Philocrates said the fathers name was Ducatsdoubloonsandpiecesofeightson he was clearly lying, and a tone of sarcasm could be found in this line. I think these lines help show a side of Roman humor we do not get to read about when looking in history books, that being sarcasm. I found the line to stick out like a sore thumb and it made me laugh. I would never expected a Roman play to have a sarcastic response to a question like this, as it reminds me of some of the humor we use today, in the same way we have funny interrogation scenes in movies and other media.
The lines I chose were: "Hegio: what about his father? Is he living? What is his name?
ReplyDeletePhilocr.: Ducatsdoubloonsandpiecesofeightson.
Hegio: A sort of name applied to him on account of his money, I take it.
Philocr.: (apparently struck by a new idea) Lord, no! on account of his being so greedy and grasping, sir."
I chose this joke because I feel it shows the Roman sense of humor. The trick that Tyndarus and Philocrates are pulling on Hegio is one that requires great wit and cleverness, and I find it funny that the best thing that Philocrates could come up with when asked for the name of his "master's" father was "Ducatsdoubloonsandpiecesofeightson Goldfields", and that Hegio actually believed him. I can just picture Philocrates freezing up and saying the made-up name in a panic.
I've seen similar comedy tropes in movies and TV shows before, and I think it's really interesting that these types of jokes have lasted for centuries, and that Roman sense of humor isn't all that different from our modern sense of humor.
-Haylee Bohnet
"Take him straight to Hippolytus the blacksmith and get a stout pair of fetters clapped on to his legs".
ReplyDeleteIt appears that during this time, one could walk a man to the local blacksmith and had a fitted pair of leg cuffs to restrain their prisoner; almost like going to a suit shop and getting fitted for a suit, only in this case, one man becomes a prisoner. I wonder what else a person could have fitted from the blacksmith; maybe a helmet? some sort of piece of armor?
"More good is often done in ignorance than by design."
ReplyDeleteThis line can show people that the Roman government/society often
kept to themselves when a conflict came up either far away or nearby. They knew that if they got involved, they would risk either loosing men, or potentially getting themselves in trouble, thus proving that ignorance is in fact bliss. I chose this line because although it says so little, it says a lot as well depending on interpretation.
“Hegio: I always did feel that you were a friend to my son, and I realized that he regarded you as one.”
ReplyDeleteThis shows us something about Roman history that we might not learn in a textbook or informational video: it shows us the value of friendship as well as a closer look at the relationship between slave and slave owner. While history textbooks may speak of slavery and how slaves were used it most likely will not speak of actual treatment, responsibilities, and relations between the two people. It is in plays like this and in other less serious and less renowned that we can get a closer look at what Roman civilization was actually like and how its citizens interacted with each other.