Source edition
Plautus. Plauti Comoediae, Volume 2. Leo, Friedrich, editor. Berlin: Weidmann, 1896.
Source data
Perseus Digital Library · CC BY-SA 4.0
Cloned and adapted by Humanitext, with ongoing edits.
Summary
This celebrated Roman comedy by Plautus features the incredibly boastful and arrogant soldier, Pyrgopolynices, who has abducted the beautiful Philocomasium. Her true lover, Pleusicles, seeks to rescue her with the help of the clever slave Palaestrio. Set in Ephesus, the plot unfolds around two adjacent houses: that of the soldier and that of a hospitable old neighbor, Periplectomenus. Palaestrio secretly connects the houses with a hole in the wall, allowing the lovers to meet, and masterfully deceives another suspicious slave by creating a fictional twin sister. Not stopping there, Palaestrio exploits the soldier's extreme vanity by orchestrating a fake courtship involving a courtesan posing as the neighbor's lovestruck wife. Blinded by his own self-importance, the soldier willingly releases Philocomasium, only to end up physically punished and humiliated as an intruder in the neighboring house, ultimately realizing his own foolishness.