Titus Maccius Plautus

Titus Maccius Plautus (c. 254–184 BCE) was a Roman playwright of the Middle Republic and the earliest Latin comic dramatist whose work survives in substantial form. Active in the late 3rd and early 2nd centuries BCE, he wrote comedies that adapt Greek New Comedy for Roman audiences, combining brisk plots, stock characters, and lively spoken and musical verse. Plautus’s plays helped shape the Latin comic tradition and influenced later European comedy. Among his best-known works are *Miles Gloriosus* and *Menaechmi*. His language is notable for colloquial vigor, wordplay, and inventive meters, offering a vivid glimpse of early Latin on stage.