HIST 114A Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Poenulus, Plautus, Atienza
Document Summary
No, poenulus is a story that focuses on the outcasts, the displaced people who were taken out of their world into one that was unfamiliar. We know that plautine plays were put on after the punic. Wars, so these plays depict the condition of roman society that had recently gone through the devastation of war. They were comedic spectacles characterized with the stock element of the young male hero and the clever slave who was fundamental in driving the plot. The dynamic between master and slave was very much based on the mutual obligation they had to each other, so it is important that neither was undermined. Although the true identity of plautus is unknown, if in fact he was a slave like we have come to believe, it would support why he maintained the stock characters of the dopey young master and his clever slave.
