Plautus: Comedy Tonight

Episode 33The life and time of Plautus, the first Roman Playwright from whom we have surviving works. After a hard start he became the most popular of the Roman playwrights churning out comedy after comedy.This episode looks at his life story and playwriting career.Then there is a brief summary of his six most significant plays and a discussion of the role of the courtesan character in the plays, including how this reflects the reality of life for women and prostitutes in Roman society.A note on the lack of political commentary in the plays leads on to a look at how the prologue was used and to conclude I look at the legacy of Plautus in the way his plays have been used as source material for many later adaptations.To support the podcast please find us on:www.patreon.comwww.ko-fi.comThis podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacy