The historical context within which Plautus wrote can be seen, to some extent, in his comments on contemporary events and persons.

Lowe wrote in his article “ Aspects of Plautus ’ Originality in the Asinaria ”, “ Plautus could substantially modify the characterization, and thus the whole emphasis of a play .”

However, this was not the case in Rome during the time of the Republic, when Plautus wrote his plays.

By the time the Roman playwright Plautus wrote his plays, the use of characters to define dramatic genres was well established.

Silenus was also possibly a Latin term of abuse around 211 BC, being used in Plautus ' Rudens to describe Labrax, a treacherous pimp or leno, as "... a pot-bellied old Silenus, bald head, beefy, bushy eyebrows, scowling, twister, god-forsaken criminal ".

The verse comedies of Plautus are the earliest Latin literature that has survived, composed around 205-184 BC, yet the start of Latin literature is conventionally dated to the first performance of a play in verse by a Greek slave, Livius Andronicus, at Rome in 240 BC.

Roman Umbria extended from Narni in the South, northeastward to the neighborhood of Ravenna on the Adriatic coast, thus including a large part of central Italy that now belongs to the Marche ; at the same time, it excluded the Sabine country ( generally speaking, the area around modern Norcia ) and the right bank of the Tiber, which formed part of Roman Etruria: for example Perusia ( the modern Perugia ) was not part of Roman Umbria ; and Sarsina, the birthplace of Plautus, is regularly stated to have been " in Umbria " — which it was, but is not now: Sarsina is in the modern province of Forlì, in Emilia-Romagna.

We know much more about early Latin comedy, because we have 20 complete plays by Plautus and 6 by Terence.

Plautus scattered songs through his plays and increased the humor with puns and wisecracks, plus comic actions by the actors.

The chief manuscript of Plautus is a palimpsest, in which Plautus ' plays had been scrubbed out to make way for Augustine's Commentary on the Psalms.

He seems to have begun furiously, scrubbing out Plautus ' alphabetically arranged plays with zest, before growing lazy, before finally regaining his vigour at the end of the manuscript to ensure not a word of Plautus was legible.

The state controlled stage productions, and Plautus ’ plays would have been banned, had they been too risqué.

William S. Anderson discusses the believability of Menander versus the believability of Plautus and, in essence, says that Plautus ’ plays are much less believable than those plays of Menander because they seem to be such a farce in comparison.

Robert B. Lloyd makes the point that “ albeit the two prologues introduce plays whose plots are of essentially different types, they are almost identical in form …” He goes on to address the specific style of Plautus that differs so greatly from Menander.

Plautus ’ characters — many of which seem to crop up in quite a few of his plays — also came from Greek stock, though they too received some Plautine innovations.

Indeed, since Plautus was adapting these plays it would be difficult not to have the same kinds of characters — roles such as slaves, concubines, soldiers, and old men.

One of the best examples of this method is the Plautine slave, a form that plays a major role in quite a few of Plautus ’ works.

The “ clever slave ” in particular is a very strong character ; he not only provides exposition and humor, but also often drives the plot in Plautus ’ plays.

Of the approximate 270 proper names in the surviving plays of Plautus, about 250 names are Greek.

Not only did men billeted in Greek areas have opportunity to learn sufficient Greek for the purpose of everyday conversation, but they were also able to see plays in the foreign tongue .” Having an audience with knowledge of the Greek language, whether limited or more expanded, allowed Plautus more freedom to use Greek references and words.

Also, by using his many Greek references and showing that his plays were originally Greek, “ It is possible that Plautus was in a way a teacher of Greek literature, myth, art and philosophy ; so too was he teaching something of the nature of Greek words to people, who, like himself, had recently come into closer contact with that foreign tongue and all its riches .”

Plautus was known for the use of Greek style in his plays, as part of the tradition of the variation on a theme.

Anderson would steer any reader away from the idea that Plautus ’ plays are somehow not his own or at least only his interpretation.

Anderson says that, “ Plautus homogenizes all the plays as vehicles for his special exploitation.

Against the spirit of the Greek original, he engineers events at the end ... or alter the situation to fit his expectations .” Anderson ’ s vehement reaction to the co-opting of Greek plays by Plautus seems to suggest that they are in no way like their originals were.

W. Geoffrey Arnott says that “ we see that a set of formulae in the plays concerned with characterization, motif, and situation has been applied to two dramatic situations which possess in themselves just as many difference as they do similarities .” It is important to compare the two authors and the remarkable similarities between them because it is essential in understanding Plautus.

There are differences not just in how the father-son relationship is presented, but also in the way in which Menander and Plautus write their poetry.

Anderson has commented that Plautus “ is using and abusing Greek comedy to imply the superiority of Rome, in all its crude vitality, over the Greek world, which was now the political dependent of Rome, whose effete comic plots helped explain why the Greeks proved inadequate in the real world of the third and second centuries, in which the Romans exercised mastery ".

In Ancient Greece during the time of New Comedy, from which Plautus drew so much of his inspiration, there were permanent theaters that catered to the audience as well as the actor.

The wooden stages on which Plautus ' plays appeared were shallow and long with three openings in respect to the scene-house.

The words denoting direction or action such as abeo (“ I go off ”), transeo (“ I go over ”), fores crepuerunt (“ the doors creak ”), or intus (“ inside ”), which signal any character ’ s departure or entrance, are standard in the dialogue of Plautus ’ plays.

But in Plautus ’ Stichus the two young women are referred to as sorores, later mulieres, and then matronae, all of which have different meanings and connotations.

Hence, many of the irregularities which have troubled scribes and scholars perhaps merely reflect the everyday usages of the careless and untrained tongues which Plautus heard about him .” Looking at the overall use of archaisms within Plautus, one will notice that they commonly occur in promises, agreements, threats, prologues, or speeches.

There are certain ways in which Plautus expressed himself in his plays, and these individual means of expression give a certain flair to his style of writing.

Plautus ' comedies abound in puns and word play, which is an important component of his poetry.

Further emphasizing and elevating the artistry of the language of the plays of Plautus is the use of meter, which simply put is the rhythm of the play.

Shakespeare, on the other hand, uses two sets of twins, which, according to William Connolly, “ dilutes the force of situations .” One suggestion is that Shakespeare got this idea from Plautus ’ Amphitruo, in which both twin masters and twin slaves appear.

On the fusion between Elizabethan and Plautine techniques, T. W. Baldwin writes, “… Errors does not have the miniature unity of Menaechmi, which is characteristic of classic structure for comedy .” Baldwin notes that Shakespeare covers a much greater area in the structure of the play than Plautus does.

These similar characters set up the same kind of deceptions in which many of Plautus ’ plays find their driving force, which is not a simple coincidence.

There are approximately 220 characters in the 20 plays of Plautus.

His only surviving work is the De compendiosa doctrina, a dictionary or encyclopedia in 20 books that shows his interests in antiquarianism and Latin literature from Plautus to Apuleius.

20, 35 ), Festus ( l. c .), and Pseudo-Asconius ; but in all his other books Livy observes a distinction which has been pointed out by Friedrich Wilhelm Ritschl ( Parerga zu Plautus, & c. p. 290 ), that ludi magni is the term applied to extraordinary games originating in a vow ( ludi votivi ), while ludi Romani is that applied to the games when they were regularly established as annual ( ludi stati ).