'Negat hercle ille ultimis accensus. Cedito: si non ubi sedeas locus est, est ubi ambules.'
_The Acts._--The plays of Plautus probably went on with few breaks, during which the audience were entertained with music. Cf. _Pseud._ 573,
_Diverbium and Canticum._--There was no chorus in Roman comedy, but part of the play was set to music and sung to the flute. Some MSS. denote this by C (Canticum); while DV (usually placed only over iambic senarii) denotes dialogue or soliloquy (Diverbium). Iambic senarii were spoken; other metres were sung; but the scenes in septenarii stood midway between the dialogue and the _canticum_. Only about a fourth of Plautus' verses are in iambic senarii, while in Terence, who followed Menander in this respect, about half of the verses are in this form.
_The Characters._--These, with the occasional exception of slaves, are un-Roman, and exhibit Greek traits belonging to Athens of the time of the New Comedy. Plautus, unlike Terence, usually alters the names used in the original Greek plays, and substitutes 'tell-tale names'; so Parmeno (παραμένων), 'the faithful slave'; Polemo, 'the soldier'; Misargyrides, playfully for the _tarpessita_ (banker). The names are often of Latin derivation; thus Saturio, in _Pers._; Peniculus, in _Menaech._; Curculio, in _Curc._
_The Language of Plautus_, in spite of the Greek dress his plays assume, represents essentially the conversational language of his time. Many Greek features in language are, however, retained. For words kept in the original Greek cf. παῦσαι, οἴχεται, εὖγε, πάλιν, ἐπιθήκην (all in the _Trin._); for Greek words Latinized cf. _gynaeceum_, _parasitus_, _opsonium_, _dapsilis_ (= δαψιλής); for hybrid new formations based on Greek cf. _thensaurarius_, _plagipatidae_, _opsonari_, _pultiphagus_.
_References to manners and customs._--(_a_) Many references to Greek life are retained from the original, especially in matters relating to dress, art, and money (Plautus has no reference to Roman money). Such are _chlamys_, _petasus_, _pallium_, _cyathus_, _cantharus_, _thermopolium_, _cerussa_, _melinum_ (_pigmentum_), _gynaeceum_, _balineae_, _ambulacrum_, _porticus_, _fores Samiae_ (_Menaech._ 178), _nummus_ (= drachma or didrachma), _nummi Philippei_, _mina_, _tarpessita_, _symbolus_, _epistula_. Cf. also _Pseud._ 146-7,