Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/423

Rh Milan, which is as old as the fifth century, but most of them were executed at the revival of learn- ing, and evidently betray their modern origin. See the essay of Niebuhr on this subject, entitled "Ueber die als untergeschoben bezeichneten Scenen im Plautus," in his "Kleine Schriften," vol. i. p. 159, &c. The corruptions of the text are owing to the fact that all the existing manuscripts of Plautus, with the exception of the Milan Palimp- sest, are derived from one common source. The editors of Plautus, however, have not founded the text upon the best existing manuscripts. These are the Codex vetus and decurtatus, which must, in connection with the Palimpsest manuscript of Milan, form the basis with any future editor for a restoration of the genuine text. (See Ritschl, Ueber die Kritik des Plautus, in the Rheinisches Museum, vol. iv. p. 153, &c.) It appears that the comedies of Plautus were, at an early time, divided into two parts, the first containing eight plays (Amphitruo — Epidicus), the second the remaining twelve (Bacchides — Truculentus.) The last twelve plays were at first unknown in Italy at the revival of learning: they were discovered in Germany about 1430, and from thence conveyed to Italy. It may be mentioned in passing, that this division of the plays into two parts accounts for the loss of the beginning of the Bacchides, which was the first play of the volume, and the commencement of which might therefore have been easily torn away.

The editio princeps of the complete works of Plautus was published at Venice, by Georgius Me- rula, in 1472. There was a still earlier edition of the first eight plays of Plautus (Amphitruo — Epi- dicus), printed at Venice, without date, of which probably only one copy is now in existence, pre- served in the public library at Venice. Niebuhr called attention to this edition (Kleine Schriften, vol. i. p. 176, &c.), but it had been previously noticed by Harles (Supplem. ad Brev. Notit. Lit. Rom. part ii, p. 483). Of the other earlier editions the best are those by Camerarius, Basel, 1558; by Lambinus, Paris, 1576 ; by Taubmann, Wit- tenberg, 1605 ; by Pareus, Frankfort, 1610; by Gruter, with Taubmann's commentary, Wittenberg, 1621; by J. Fr. Gronovius, Leyden, 1664, re- printed at the same place in 1669, at Amsterdam in 1684, and again at Leipzig, under the care of J. A. Ernesti, in 1760. The best modern editions of the complete works of Plautus are by Bothe, Berlin, 1809 — 1811, 4 vols. 8vo., again at Stutt- gardt, 1829, 4 vols. 8vo,, and lastly at Leipzig, 1 834, 2 vols. 8vo.; and by Weise, Quedlinburg, 1837 — 1838, 2 vols. 8vo, There are some editions of the separate plays of Plautus which deserve parti- cular recommendation. These are the Captivi, Miles, and Trinummus, by Lindemann, Leipzig, 1844, 2d edition; the Bacchides, by Ritschl, Halle, 1835 ; and the Trinummus, by Hermann, Leipzig, 1800. Plautus has been translated into almost all the European languages. In English some of the plays were translated by Echard in 1716, by Cooke in 1754, and by Cotter in 1827; and there is a translation in English of all the works of Plautus by Thornton and Warner, 1767 — 1774, 5 vols. 8vo. In French we have the translations of the Amphitruo, Epidicus, and Rudens, by Madame Dacier, 1683, and of the complete works by Li- miers, Amsterdam, 1719, 10 vols. 8vo, and by Guendeville, Leyden, 1719, 10 vols. 8vo. In German there are several translations of single plays, of which Lessing's excellent translation of the Captivi deserves to be particularly mentioned. There is likewise a translation in German of the complete works by Kuffner, Vienna, 1806 — 1807, 5 vols. 8vo:, of nine of the plays by Köpke, Berlin. 1809-20, 2 vols. 8vo, and of eight by Rapp, Stuttgart, 1838-46.

The most important works on the life and works of Plautus are the following : — Lessing, Von dem Lehen und den Werken des Plautus, in the 3rd vo- lume of his collected works, Berlin, 1838 ; Osann, Analecta critica, &c. ; insunt Plauti Fragmenta ab Ang. Maio nuper reperta, Berlin, 1816; Gep- pert, Uel)er den Codex A mbrosianus, und seinen Ein- Jluss aufdie Plautinische Kritik, Leipzig, 1847; and above all Ritschl, Parergon Plautinorum Teren- tianorumque, Leipzig, 1845, containing the follow- ing valuable dissertations in relation to Plautus: 1. De Plauti Poetae Nominibus; 2. De Aetate Plauti; 3. Die Fabulae Varronianae des Plautus; 4. Die Plautinischen Didaskalien; 5. De Actae Trinummi Tempore; 6. De Veteribus Plauti Inter- pretibus; 7. De Plauti Bacchidibus; 8. De tur- bato Scenarum Ordine Mosiellariae Plautinae; 9. De Interpolatione Trinummi Plautinae.

 PLAUTUS, C. RUBE′LLIUS, was the son of Rubellius Blandus [Blandus] and of Julia, the daughter of Drusus, the son of the emperor Tibe- rius. Plautus was thus the great-grandson of Tiberius, and the great- great- grand son of Augustus, in consequence of Tiberius having been adopted by Augustus. Descended thus from the founder of the Roman empire, Plautus incurred the jealousy of Nero. He was involved in the accusations which Junia Silana brought against Agrippina in a. d. 55, whom she accused of a design of marrying Plautus, and raising him to the imperial throne. Five years afterwards, A. D. 60, a comet appeared, which, according to the popular opinion, was thought to forebode a change in the empire. The people thereupon were set thinking who would be Nero's successor; and no one appeared to them so fit as Rubellius Plautus. Although the latter lived in the most quiet manner, avoiding the popular notice, and harbouring no traitorous de- signs, Nero wrote to him, recommending him to withdraw from the city to his estates in Asia. Such advice was, of course, equivalent to a com- mand; Plautus accordingly retired to Asia with his wife Antistia, the daughter of L. Antistius Vetus, and employed himself in his exile in the study of the Stoic philosophy. But even in this retreat he was not safe; for Tigellinus having again excited the fears of Nero in a. d. 62 against Plautus, he was murdered in Asia by command of the emperor. Many of his friends advised him to take up arms to resist his executioners, and his father-in-law Antistius Vetus wrote to him to the same effect; but Plautus preferred death to an uncertain struggle for the empire. (Tac. Ann. xiii. 19, xiv. 22, 57, 59; Dion Cass. lxii. 14; Juv. viii. 39.)

 PLEIADES ( or ), the Pleiads, are called daughters of Atlas by Pleione (or by the Oceanid Aethra, Eustath. ad Hom. p. 1155), of Erechtheus (Serv. ad Aen. i. 744), of Cadmus (Theon, ad Arat. p. 22), or of the queen of the Amazons. (Schol. ad Theocrit. xiii. 25.) They were the sisters of the Hyades, and seven in number, six of whom are described as visible, and the seventh as invisible. Some call 