Gellius Noctes Atticae 3.3.11-14
[11] feruntur autem sub Plauti nomine comoediae circiter centum atque triginta; [12] sed homo eruditissimus L. Aelius quinque et uiginti eius esse solas existimauit. [13] neque tamen dubium est, quin istaec, quae scriptae a Plauto non uidentur et nomini eius addicuntur, ueterum poetarum fuerint et ab eo retractatae <et> <et> Carrio. expolitae sint ac propterea resipiant stilum Plautinum. [14] sed enim Saturionem et Addictum et tertiam quandam, cuius nunc mihi nomen non subpetit, in pistrino eum scripsisse Varro et plerique alii memoriae tradiderunt, cum pecunia omni, quam in operis artificum scaenicorum pepererat, in mercatibus perdita inops Romam redisset et ob quaerendum uictum ad circumagendas molas, quae ‘trusatiles’ appellantur, operam pistori locasset.
[11] Now there are about one-hundred-and-thirty comedies in circulation under the name ‘Plautus’; [12] but Lucius Aelius (that most learned of men) thought only twenty-five of them were his. [13] Yet there is no doubt that those which do not appear to have been written by Plautus but are attached to his name were the work of poets of old and were revised and polished up by him, and that is why they have the flavour of Plautus’ style. [14] But Varro and many others have recorded that he wrote the Saturio, the Addictus, and a third comedy whose name escapes me now, in a bakery, when, after losing all the money he had earned in jobs connected with the stage in trade, he had returned penniless to Rome, and to earn a living had hired himself out to a baker to drive around the stones which are called ‘trusatiles’.
| Relevant guides | Plautus |
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