Studies in the Prosody of Plautine Latin

Titus Maccius Plautus (ca. 354-184 B.C.) is the first Roman author whose works are preserved for us in any considerable quantity. His output consists of Latin adaptations of comedies of Menander, Demophilus, Diphilus, Philemon, and other exponents of Greek New Comedy. In these adaptations, Plautus introduced much original material of a distinctly Roman flavour, preserving a precious trove of the colloquial Archaic Latin of the third and early second centuries B.C. Benjamin...
More Description

Titus Maccius Plautus (ca. 354-184 B.C.) is the first Roman author whose works are preserved for us in any considerable quantity. His output consists of Latin adaptations of comedies of Menander, Demophilus, Diphilus, Philemon, and other exponents of Greek New Comedy. In these adaptations, Plautus introduced much original material of a distinctly Roman flavour, preserving a precious trove of the colloquial Archaic Latin of the third and early second centuries B.C.

Benjamin Fortson takes a close look at metrical distributions and phonological phenomena in the prosody of these works, illuminating not only early Roman poetic practice, but revealing important features of Archaic Latin as it was spoken.