ABOUT THIS BOOK

Asses, asses, and more asses! This new edition of Plautus' rumbustious comedy provides the complete original Latin text, witty scholarly commentary, and an English translation that both complements and explicates Plautus' original style. John Henderson reveals this play as a key to Roman social relations centered on many kinds of slavery: to sex, money, and family structure; to masculinity and social standing; to senility and partying; and to jokes, lies, and idiocy. The translation remains faithful to Plautus' syllabic style for reading aloud, as well as to his humorous colloquialisms and wordplay, providing readers with a comfortable affinity to Plautus himself. An indispensable teaching and learning tool for the study of Roman New Comedy, this edition includes comprehensive commentary, useful indexes, and a pronunciation guide that will help readers of all levels understand and appreciate Plautus and his era.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

John Henderson is Professor of Classics at the University of Cambridge, King's College. He is the author of many books on Latin literature and Roman culture, including Fighting for Rome and Writing Down Rome.

REVIEWS

“An ideal play for Latin literature courses-lively, funny, short, readable, and full of important insights into Roman family and social life.”—Sharon James, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

"Henderson on Asinaria is a work of exceptional vitality and major significance for the field of Plautine and Latin literary studies."—Alison Sharrock, University of Manchester

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents
Preface		000
Prologue
	1¿15 The Prologue tells all there's nothing to tell, so listen	000
Text and translation	000
Text: differences that make a difference:
	1. Differences from the Oxford Classical Text	000
	2. Differences from the Sarsina/Urbino Text	000
Outline of the metres of Asinaria	000
Plautin language and Latin vocabulary
	Scene by scene	000
Commentary and analysis
Chapter
1	Killing the plot	000
		16¿126 Somewhere in theatre Greece . . .
			Father enlists Slave One to swindle Mother and fund Loverboy Son
2	Drive a hard bargain	000
	127¿248
1. 127¿52 Loverboy's lament
2. 153¿248 Loverboy spars with Madame: a deal is cut
3	Funny Money	000
	249¿503
1. 249¿66 Slave One's wake up call
2. 267¿380 Slave Two's . . . brainwave
3. 381¿406 The Courier arrives
4. 407¿503 The con's too convincing: Saurea's world
4	American beauty	000
	504¿44 The Sex Slave holds out on Momma
5	Beating the system	000
	545¿745
1. 545¿90 We're in the money . . . and We're so pretty, o so pretty . . .
2. 591¿745 Lovers' last gasp lament and Slaves riding high:
Loverboy pays his dues
6	Stick to the script	000
	746¿827
1. 746¿809 Pal writes a contract for rival Loverboy
2. 810¿27 Loverboy's Pal will snitch to Mother on his new rival:
	Father
7	Rotten rhetorics	000
	828¿941
1. 828¿50 Dad's party swings
2. 851¿941 Mum fetches him home
8	'It's a gas'	000
		Space, movement, verse
9	Beastly lives	000
	591¿745 (reprise of 5.2) Have the whip hand, get your own back
10	A right earful	000
		Audience as Asinaria
Epilogue	000
	942¿7 Some curtain call: your plaudits appreciated
Notes	000
Bibliography	000
Indexes	000

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