Abstract

For about 200 years, the opening verses of the final scene of Plautus’s “Bacchides” have been commonly edited in such a fashion that the speaker assignations produce a contradictory and dramatically weak dialogue. By a few minor modifications, a coherent dialogue can be restored. The two Bacchis sisters are consistently characterized and their contrasting attitudes and temperaments correspond to those of the two old men, who, too, are presented as two opposites. Since the corresponding scene in Menander’s “Dis Exapaton” must have been designed quite differently, the symmetrical composition is entirely Plautus’s own work and is witness to his careful composition and aesthetic judgement.