Comedy and the Rise of Rome

Chapter/Section

Pages

Summary

1-23

Leigh sets up his aim of studying comedy and history in light of each other.He discusses the comoedia palliata in wartime Rome.He also discusses the nature of comedy as a commentary on Rome.He evaluates the history through Livy, Polybius and Cicero.

24 -56

Leigh sets forth the dating of Plautine Comedy and the implication of a Hannibalic impact upon Plautus’ plays.

The Plautine Slave and History

24 -26

Here he makes an assertion of the clever slave as brilliant commander with reference to Hannibal himself.

Gracchus and the ‘Volones’

26-28

The slave as cunning commander is armed with the weapons of laughter at his command.The comic slave and the concerns of slaves in Rome bring about this analogy as the slave represents the dishonorable immorality of the Carthaginians and other enemies of Rome.

Playing Punic

28-37

Using Cicero and Livy, Leigh represents the Roman mentality of the Carthaginians as deceitful as he attempts to apply the character of Hannibal to the comic slave.He emphasizes the Punica fides as the character of Hannibal and the slave.

Fighting Like a Roman

37-45

Leigh asserts that through Plautus the Roman national identity was found in the term virtus vera.Not at all a wholly persuasive account of Roman identity through the lens of Plautine comedy.

Hannibal and the Art of Ambush

45-47

Here Leigh associates the strategy of ambush as a uniquely Carthaginian tactic.

Ambush and Generalship in Plautus

47-52

Here again, Leigh emphasizes the tactic of ambush and associates it with the tactic used by the slave in Poenulus, as he ambushes the pimp to help Agorastocles.

A Fragile Construction

52-56

Leigh summarizes his conclusions concerning the Roman construction of their identity and that of their views of Carthage.He suggests that his conclusions may be questioned and attempts to rationalize and defend his argument.

This chapter is full of information tracing the origin and evolution of the Roman law of postlinium, which gave Romans the ability to reclaim their citizen status after voluntary exile or coming home after being imprisoned.He makes the argument that The Captivi is a play in response to the consequences of this law as soldiers found incentives to surrender rather than die for Rome.

98-157

Leigh draws from Plautus’ play Mercator and also draws upon Cicero and Cato’s works for this chapter.Leigh evaluates the Roman and Greek perspective of the honor of agrarian life and the urbanization they faced; he also looks at the distrustful attitude towards sea traders and the merchants in the streets, who dealt with this class of men.

This final chapter fittingly begins with a description of the funeral games L. Aemilius Paullus Macedonicus, a general of the Macedonian Wars and a public pater figure.Leigh looks at Terence’s play Adelphoe, which was performed at these games.In Terence’s play, Leigh suggests the comparison of a father raising his two sons to that of a general in command of his legions.Leigh raises an engaging question about the motivation behind Terence’s production of this, in that it honored Paullus or actually criticized the patron he was hired to honor?