CMRS 110 Lecture 1: 1. Plautus intro.rtf

• School: U of S
• Department: Classical Medieval Renaissance
• Course: CMRS 110
• Professor: Porter John

Document Summary

The next work that we"ll be reading is plautus" braggart soldier. This takes us from fourth/third-century athens to late third-/early second-century bc rome, which means that there is a good deal of background material to consider. If you haven"t had a chance to at least glance at my brief overview of the four periods of ancient comedy, you should do so now (paws introductory material folder). Plautus" preserved works date to approximately 215-184 bc. This places him in the period of the *second punic. War (rome"s lengthy struggle against the forces of carthage, led by hannibal) and its immediate aftermath. Rome in plautus" day was in the midst of being transformed from a powerful city-state that dominated affairs in italy, to an imperial power that dominated the entire mediterranean. The period of the punic wars (roughly speaking, the mid-3rd to mid-2nd century b. c. ) witnessed far-ranging changes at rome.