Bacchides home Plautus (Dramata)

BACCHIDES

Author: Plautus
Date: 194-184 BC (tentative)
Model: Menander Dis Exapaton
Adaptations: None known.

Texts and Commentaries

Latin text on-line at the Perseus Project (Leo 1895)
Lindsay, W.M. 1904-1905. T. Macchi Plauti Comoediae. 2 vols. Clarendon: Oxford.
Nixon, Paul. 1916-38. Plautus. 5 vols. Loeb Classical Library 60. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 1:325-457
Ernout, Alfred. 1932. Plaute. 7 vols. Paris: Les belles lettres. 2:5-81.
Questa, Cesare. 1975. Bacchides 2d ed. Florence: Sansoni.
Barsby, John. 1986. Plautus: Bacchides. Warminster: Aris and Phillips.

English Translations available

Riley, Henry Thomas. 1912. The Comedies of Plautus. London: G. Bell and Sons. 1:145-210.

translation on-line at the Perseus Project

Nixon, Paul. 1916-38. Plautus. 5 vols. Loeb Classical Library 60. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 1:325-457.
Edward H. Sugden. 1942. The Complete Roman Drama, ed. George Duckworth. 2 vols. New York: Random House. 1:157-221.
Tatum, James. 1983. Darker Comedies: Bacchides, Casina, and Truculentus. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. 13-81. Reprint in eds. David R. Slavitt and Palmer Bovie. Plautus: The Comedies. 4 vols. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995. 2:153-246.
Barsby, John. 1986. Plautus: Bacchides. Warminster: Aris and Phillips.
Berg, Deena and Douglass Parker. 1999. Plautus & Terence: Five Comedies. Indianapolis: Hacket. 185-294.

CAST OF CHARACTERS

BACCHIS—a prostitute
SLAVE of Bacchis
PISTOCLERUS—a young man
BOY of the soldier
SISTER of Bacchis the prostitute
LYDUS—a tutor to Pistoclerus
CHRYSALUS—slave of Nicobulus
NICOBULUS—old man and father of Mnesilochus
MNESILOCHUS—a young man
PHILOXENUS—old man (and father of Pistoclerus)
PARASITE of the soldier
ARTAMO—a flogger (and slave of Nicobulus)
CLEOMACHUS—the soldier

Act and Scene	Lines	Characters	Action
lacuna	1-30	Bacchis Slave Pistoclerus Boy Sister	The prostitute Bacchis and a Slave clean the brothel in preparation for the arrival of her Sister, who is also named Bacchis, from Samos. The young man Pistoclerus comes onstage. He has been wandering around Athens in search for Bacchis’ Sister on behalf of his friend Mnesilochus, who is in love with her. The servant of the soldier Cleomachus has caught up with Bacchis’s Sister after pursuing her from Samos. His master has paid for her services as a prostitute, and he therefore demands that either she return to him or give him back his gold. Pistoclerus learns that this is the woman for whom he has been searching.
I.i	35-108	Bacchis Sister Pistoclerus	Bacchis seduces Pistoclerus so that he will be present with her to offer protection when Cleomachus comes looking for her Sister.
I.ii	109-169	Lydus Pistoclerus	Pistoclerus comes back from the market with supplies to bring to the brothel. His slave and tutor Lydus unsuccessfully tries to dissuade him from being involved with a prostitute.
II.i	170-177	Chrysalus	The slave Chrysalus returns from Ephesus after he and Mnesilochus have brought back a large sum of money for Nicobulus.
II.ii	179-234	Pistoclerus Chrysalus	Chrysalus meets Pistoclerus in the road and learns that Bacchis’s Sister has been found. He begins to devise a plan for cheating Nicobulus of his money so that Mnesilochus can buy the Sister from Cleomachus.
II.iii	235-367	Nicobulus Chrysalus	Chrysalus tells his master Nicobusus that both he and Mnesilochus were compelled to leave the gold in Ephesus. While Nicobulus goes there, Mnesilochus will be able to purchase the Sister.
III.i	368-384	Lydus	Lydus shouts to Pistoclerus through the brothel door that he is going to tell his father Philoxenus what he is doing.
III.ii	385-404	Mnesilochus	Mnesilochus comes onstage. He has learned that Pistoclerus has found the Sister and that Chrysalus is planning to get money for him from his father.
III.iii	405-498	Lydus Philoxenus Mnesilochus	Lydus leads Philoxenus to the brothel to show him what his son is doing. Philoxenus is not as concerned about his son’s behavior as Lydus would like him to be. They meet Mnesilochus, who is led by Lydus to believe that Pistoclerus and the Sister are cheating on him behind his back.
III.iv	500-525	Mnesilochus	Mnesilochus, in anger over this apparent betrayal of his love, decides to give the gold back to his father.
III.v	526-529	Pistoclerus	Pistoclerus exits the brothel and encounters Mnesilochus outside.
III.vi	530-572	Mnesilochus Pistoclerus	After Mnesilochus gives the gold back to his father, he confronts Pistoclerus about his betrayal. Pistoclerus takes his friend to the brothel to prove that there are two women named Bacchis.
IV.i	573-583	Parasite	The Parasite introduces himself.
IV.ii	583-611	Parasite Pistoclerus	The Parasite, a friend of Cleomachus, knocks on the door of the brothel to demand payment for the soldier. Pistoclerus tells him to go away.
IV.iii	612-639	Mnesilochus Pistoclerus	Mnesilochus bemoans his mistreatment of Pistoclerus and his current situation of being unable to buy the Sister from Cleomachus.
IV.iv	640-760	Chrysalus Mnesilochus Pistoclerus	Chrysalus devises a new plan to cheat his master of his gold.
IV.v	761-769	Chrysalus	Chrysalus says that he needs his master to be angry for his plan to work.
IV.vi	770-798	Nicobulus Chrysalus	As part of his plan, Chrysalus gives Nicobulus a letter from his son instructing his father to tie Chrysalus up.
IV.vii	799-841	Nicobulus Lorarius (Artamo) Chrysalus	Nicobulus is about to tie Chrysalus up when his slave promises him that it will be worth his while to permit him to lead his master to the brothel.
IV.viii	842-924	Cleomachus Nicobulus Chrysalus	As they approach the brothel, they see Cleomachus also heading that way, breathing murderous threats against Mnesilochus and Bacchis. Chrysalus leads his master to believe that Bacchis is the soldier’s wife, and Nicobulus, fearful for his son’s life, pays Cleomachus for the prostitute.
IV.ix	925-1075	Chrysalus Nicobulus	Chrysalus devises yet another successful scheme to cheat more gold from his master.
IV.x	1076-1086	Philoxenus	Philoxenus is having second thoughts about the seriousness of the effects of prostitution on his son. He goes to the brothel to see his son’s condition.
V.i	1087-1119	Nicobulus Philoxenus	Nicobulus realizes that he has been duped. Angry at Chrysalus, he joins Philoxenus in going to the brothel.
V.ii	1120-1211	Bacchis Sister Nicobulus Philoxenus	Although their intentions are otherwise when they go to the brothel, the two fathers are seduced by Bacchis and her Sister. The play ends with a rebuke of the foolishness of old men who were foolish when they were young.