e
text of the play has suffered greatly. The scene is Athens.

7. _Cistellaria_.--This play contains a reference to the war against
Hannibal then going on; ll. 197 _sqq._,

'Bene valete, et vincite
virtute vera, quod fecistis antidhac, ...
ut vobis victi Poeni poenas sufferant.'

According to Ritschl, about 600 verses have been lost. The scene is
Sicyon.

8. _Epidicus_.--This play is referred to in the _Bacchides_, ll. 213-5
(spoken by Chrysalus), where the unpopularity of the play is
attributed to the acting of Pellio.

'Non res, sed actor mihi cor odio sauciat.
Etiam Epidicum, quam ego fabulam aeque ac me ipsum amo,
nullam aeque invitus specto, si agit Pellio.'

_Epid._ 222,

'Sed vestita, aurata, ornata ut lepide! ut concinne! ut nove!' etc.,

shows that the piece was written after the repeal of the Lex Oppia
Sumptuaria, B.C. 195. The plot is complicated, and _contaminatio_ is
assumed by some authorities. The play contains only seven hundred and
thirty-three lines, and some believe it to be a stage edition. The
scene is Athens.

9. _Bacchides_.--The first part of this play, along with the last part
of the _Aulularia_,[9] has been lost, as also the prefaces of the
grammarians, so that we do not know what was in the first part. The
original was probably Menander's +Dis exapaton+. Plautus
appears to refer to this twice, l. 1090,

'Perii: pudet. Hocine me aetatis _ludos bis factum_ esse indigne';

l. 1128,

'Pol hodie altera iam _bis detonsa_ certost.'

The line, +hon hoi theoi philousin, apothneskei neos+, which
belongs to the same play (Stobaeus, _Serm._ 120, 8) is translated in
ll. 816-7,

'quem di diligunt
adulescens moritur.'

The date is pretty well fixed by l. 1073,

'Quod non triumpho: pervolgatumst, nil moror.'

Now, triumphs were not frequent till after the Second Punic War, and
were especially frequent from B.C. 197 to 187. The play probably
refers to the four triumphs of B.C. 189, and may have been brought out
in that or the following year. The scene is Athens.

10. _Mostellaria_ (sc. _fabula_, 'a play dealing with a ghost,' from
_mostellum_, dim. of _monstrum_).--The play is quoted by Festus, p.
166, as 'Mostellaria'; pp. 162 and 305, as 'Phasma.' According to
Ritschl, the +Phasma+ of Philemon was Plautus' model. The
reference to _unguenta exotica_ (l. 42) points to a late date, when
Asiatic luxury was growing common. The play is imitated in Ben