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Politics and Society in Plautus' "Trinummus"

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Politics and Society in Plautus' Sonderdrucke aus der Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg ECKARD LEFÈVRE Politics and society in Plautus' "Trinummus" Originalbeitrag erschienen in: Ruth Scodel (Hrsg.): Theater and society in the classical world. Ann Arbor: Univ. of Michigan Pr., 1993, S. 177-190 Politics and Society in Plautus' Trinummus Eckard Lefevre Plautus' Trinummus is generally characterized by professions of high- mindedness and by moral maxims. Thus it is unsurprising that J. Kam- mermeister and G.E. Lessing were already impressed by its tone: The play is both tasteful, and it sets forth the model of a good and loyal friend, and it is full of useful aphorisms.' Second to the Captivi, this is the finest play among Plautus' comedies. He adapted it from a Greek original by Philemon, who gave his play a much more decent title, namely: "The Treasure " 2 Lessing considered the Trinummus worth adapting for the German stage; in 1750, he modeled his comedy "Der Schatz" upon Plautus' play. The classical scholar O. Ribbeck was similarly impressed by the tone of the Trinummus: The Trinummus, one of the deepest plays, gives an appealing picture of steadfast noble-mindedness in the good old days, when a man could still rely on a friend's word. This noble-mindedness is primarily represented by brave Callicles, but throughout is supported and em- phasized by the other characters as well. It is not just the old men who participate in the plot in unusually large numbers as the natural exponents of solid principles; the two young men, however different a view of life they hold, also start from exactly the same ground. How this attitude is transferred from the father to the son is shown by the morally packed conversation between Philto and the amiable Lysiteles. Even the rascal Stasimus, who fully shares in the gaiety of 177 8 Theater and Society in the Classical World his master's life, is brimming with reflections on faithfulness and uprightness. But nevertheless modern, loose ideas have already shot up like weeds, and they are nearly overgrowing the more austere ideas of the fathers. Again and again this development is deplored. 3 Other scholars, however, held quite a different view. 4 U. v. Wilamowitz- Moellendorff s damning judgment, for instance, is well known: after recommending the study of Plautine comedy in school, he put up the warning sign "but please, not the rίn, "S and explained his view- point in an obvious inversion of Lessing's judgment: In the Trinummus Philemon set out to become more serious, deeper, more Menandrian [than in the Mostellaria], but the result can hardly be called satisfactory. For the Trinummus is boring, even for a Plautine play, and it is only for its old-fogeyish prudery that the Trinummus is given preference, since this play seems more decent and virtuous. Perhaps I am too severe, but as a senior high-school student I had to act the Maskarill in Lessing's "Der Schatz," a play we should not have been bothered with. Thus I read the Trinummus, and this play at first spoiled my pleasure in Plautine comedy, the more so since I next read the Captivi. It is rather impossible to fully put out of mind those first impressions. 6 Shortly after, U. Jachmann, too, expressed open dislike of the moral πάθος o e "u, eosey oeiuous rίn, " which he ascribed to Philemon: ... in Philemon's Θησαυρός e oi o sma iisie moaiy is om eey oe ae aig aey u u (aks o auus wi e eacig o io i II 4, we ae ae icie o u away i III 2, wee iemo as youg ysiees sike u us e same sog, a e is owee esaie y auus. A iay, a ies 028., ee e sae Sasimus, wo u o e a ace e Saco asa i suc a eesig way, sas eacig. u ouaey ee auus agai makes imse ea, a eas i e oe. 8 It is not surprising that attempts have been made to give special political meaning to the moral professions in the Trinummus. T. Frank, writing a year after Jachmann, considered the play an authentic witness Politics and Society in Plautus' Trinummus / 179 of the quarrel between Cato and the Scipios, which from 190 B.C. onwards had grown overtly sharper, leading to the notorious trials and ultimately to Africanus' exile: To summarize, I think that the Trinummus was played at the Mega- lensian games of 187 and that it contains several allusions to the all- engrossing debates then going on between the partizans of Scipio and of Cato. The nature of these allusions is interesting. Plautus does not mention names—that was tabu after the experiences of Naevius—and he even guards himself so far as to give to Stasimus a plausible motivation in personal experience for his sermon on morals (1.1023). He contents himself with harping on words and phrases that everybody had heard in the public debates and that had become common talk, and he skilfully weaves these into his dialogue, sometimes with a humorous twist. However, it is not difficult to see that his sympathy is with the Catonian side. His dislike for the arrogance of the haughty nobles overriding law rings quite sincere. ... 9 Plautus—a partisan of Cato ! 10 This view has become more and more popular. In 1952 F. Della Corte stated: ... while in the Miles and in the Cistellaria at the end of the 3rd century Plautus was still supporting the political views of the phil- hellenic and Scipionic circle, later in 190 his sympathies had gone over to Cato with irreverent allusions to Scipio and to Ennius. 11 The idea that Plautus basically approved of Cato's moral outlook was strongly affirmed by O. Jurewicz in 1959: In conservative ideology, Plautus as well as Cato adopted the same position, that of domestic opposition against the modern movements of Greek culture, which by that time had successfully invaded various social strata... The connection of the two names—on the one side Cato, who, even though without justification, has been handed down to posterity as the personification of all human and civil virtues, and on the other side the frivolous Plautus, who nowadays frequently is considered `immoral'—is paradoxical only in appearance.12 80 Theater and Society in the Classical World Particular attention was directed to the Trinummus by D.C. Earl and E. Maόi i 60. o e assages cie y ak, Ea ae ysiees seec o is ie esoicus a ies 6426, a, eeig o oy ius , 2, e cocue: The closeness with which Lysiteles' reproaches against Lesbonicus resemble those brought against Scipio is remarkable. Clearly Plautus is here writing in the same tradition. We may even note some slight verbal parallels... It is obvious that the passage of the Trinummus ... is in the tradition not only of Polybius but also of Ennius and the Scipionic Elogia. 13 Maόi, owee, eeig o ios wos o aice aesse o ysiees i II 2, oie ou: Is there anybody, who upon reading these lines, could miss the striking resemblance to Cato's exhortation addressed to his son? O. Jurewicz rightly points out that Cato and Plautus take the same view in rejecting luxury, cooks, education, hetaerae, Greeks, Greek literature and phi- losophy, medical doctors [sic]—and, let me add: foreign cult and the soothsayers. It is as if Plautus had modeled his ideal of education directly upon Cato. See Mostellaria (120-21, 126-27).... 14 Plautus, another Cato then? Nevertheless, still in 1974 E. Segal was so convinced of the moral pathos of the Trinummus as to think that the Roman virtutes portrayed in this play transcended "Catonian or Scipionic factions" and reflected the conservative mood of those days; 15 as Segal suggested, in openly praising these virtues, Plautus had been working to gain the favour of the aediles, upon whose payments the playwright was dependent. 16 Can we then judge the moral statements of the play as equal to those of contemporary Roman tragedy? In this connection it deserves note that the seriousness of the moral message of the Trinummus has been doubted. In 1944, Ph. W. Harsh had already argued against Lessing's admiring judgment, arguing that there were certainly some excellent scenes of "high comedy," especially in the first part of the play, but that the "climax falls off disappointingly into obvious farce. " 17 Indeed, the moralizing tone is not at all equally balanced throughout and, above all, is obviously dismissed at the end, Politics and Society in Plautus' Trinummus / 181 the ultimate goal of every plot in a play. Two articles of the seventies went a step further in perceiving that even the "moral" passages can hardly be looked upon as serious throughout but are, indeed, repeatedly undermined and distorted by certain devices, as if to caricature the atmosphere of strict morality. While in 1970 J.P. Stein had still given his article the title "Morality in Plautus' Trinummus," in 1979 W.S. Anderson was even more straightforward, giving his article the subtitle "The Absurdity of Officious Morality." Even though these two scholars did not place the passages that will now be discussed in the center of their argument, they nevertheless paved the way for a deeper understanding. In the following discussion the first scenes of the Trinummus (I 1-II 2) will be examined, since it is here that moral reflection is particularly em- phasized. The relation between the Trinummus and the Thesauros, how- ever, will be dealt with only to the extent necessary for evaluating the moral claim. To briefly sketch the plot of the play: Charmides, a merchant by profession, has gone overseas.
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