Suetonius 'The Eunuch': The Pervasiveness Of Greek New Comedy

If we are to believe Suetonius’s biography of Publius Terence, then the latter was born in 184 B.C., the exact year of the death of his predecessor, Plautus. The two wrote for a Rome in the midst of a centuries-long period of hellanisation. (Barsby.) One of the many ways in which the pervasiveness of Greek culture is evident is the popularity, at the time, of adaptations of Greek New Comedy. One of the plays that I will be discussing in this essay, Terence’s The Eunuch, is in fact a direct adaptation of one such work of Menander’s. (Barsby). The other, Platus’s Pseudolus, is described by Norton Anthology as “drawing both on the improvisatory structure of Atelan farce and on Greek New Comedy.” The most obvious example of the “other” on stage

during these shows is perhaps the Greek characters of these plays but, given that they swear to Roman gods and embrace ostensibly Roman culture and traditions, it is unclear how much Plautus and Terence were inspired by actual Grecians. The “other” identity that I am more interested in is one with which the playwrights -Terence in particular- and the original audiences would have had much more experience: that of the slave.
In class we established that, though there are debates on who exactly were permitted to be present at the theater in ancient Rome, slaves were most likely a part of those original audiences.

However, whether they made up any large portion of it, or whether they would have been a member of the intended audience, is debatable. Michael Fontaine, Classics professor at Cornell University, published an excellent essay entitled “Who was in the audience of Roman comedy?” in which he argues that Plautus, at least, most likely wrote for a “predominately aristocratic” public, and that is who I will be discussing as the intended audience in this

essay.
Firstly, I will examine Plautus’s Pseudolus, in which the titular character uses his wits and to aid the son of his master, Calidorus, in obtaining the prostitute with whom he -Calidorus- is in love. To a modern audience it may seem as though Plautus is -by having clever Psuedolus fool his social betters, aid Calidorus in doing what the latter is himself unable to do, and ultimately win a fair amount of money from his master- calling into question the master-slave dynamic. Such an interpretation is almost certainly incorrect.
In the conclusion of Slaves, Masters, and the Art of Authority in Plautine Comedy, Kathleen McCarthy aptly draws comparisons between the slaves of Plautine comedies to those of blackface minstrel shows in the American south. Just as the grinning and
“fundamentally childlike” slaves depicted in minstrel shows justify to their masters their own positions, the Roman slaves depicted as archetypical tricksters seem to be perfectly content in their bondage. Pseudolus opens with him begging a melancholy Calidorus to confide his troubles, so that he -Psuedolus- may offer some sort of assistance. In our class discussion somebody described their interactions as being more like that between two friends, and I would agree. When Pseudolus’s master, Simo, ends up losing money to the former in a bet, he sportingly pays up. Though Simo laments his loss, the overall interaction between the two is fairly light-hearted, and on the last page of the play master and servant go off to drink together.
I do not claim that the “otherness” of the slaves within the show is part of the larger themes or intentions of the piece.

Rather, I believe that the slave being the “other” is essential to fulfilling what McCarthy describes as the “functions” of the “representation of slaves in fiction.” Pseudolus’s efforts on Calidorus’s behalf are tempered by his indolence toward Simo himself, and he ultimately seems to spend the money he earns in their bet on alcohol. In short, he fulfills the fantasy of the masters, themselves restricted by Rome’s strict social codes, to subvert authority, while at the same time reaffirming their right to mastery over carefree slaves more concerned with drinking than their own

freedom.