Virgo, dote cassa atque inlocabilis: Plautus’ Aulularia 592-98

Kathryn Williams (Canisius College)

Act IV of Plautus’ Aulularia begins with a monologue by the slave of Lyconides. The slave presents himself as a servus bonus, always ready and eager to help and protect his master. He delivers his speech on his way to the altar of Fides under orders from Lyconides to learn more about the proposed wedding between Megadorus, Lyconides’ uncle, and Phaedria, the daughter of the miserly neighbor, Euclio, and the woman Lyconides raped months earlier at the Ceres festival.

Scholars have noted a number of problems with the monologue. One is that the name given to the slave, Strobilus, is the same name given to Megadorus’ slave, even though the two slaves clearly must be different individuals (Lange, CP 68 [1973] 62-3). Another problem is that the slave states that he has been protecting his master from being a slave to ruinous love. It is this second concern, especially lines 592-98, which is the focus of this paper. Brix (Jahrbücher, 1865: 65) and Wagner (T. Macci Plauti Aulularia, 1866: 57-58; 140) challenged the lines and, since then, many editors have excised them from the text. Hunter (PCPS 27 [1981] 40) does not rule out accepting the passage, although he still views it as inconsistent with the comedy’s plot. I argue that the lines should be retained, precisely because they strengthen the most fundamental themes of the play and provide a convincing explanation for why Lyconides decides to pursue marriage with Phaedria only after she has become engaged to Megadorus (cf. Konstan, Roman Comedy, 1983: 39). Lines 592-94 of the slave’s speech are most significant:

nam qui amanti ero seruitutem seruit, quasi ego seruio,
si erum uidet superare amorem, hoc serui esse officium reor,
retinere ad salutem, non enim quo incumbat eo impellere.

Those who oppose the lines argue that the erus is being lured by someone who could not become his legitimate wife, such as a courtesan, and yet, we soon learn that Lyconides is in love with Phaedria (603), the woman that he marries by the (lost) end of the play. I would argue that the slave needs to guard Lyconides from Phaedria, because she is a poor woman whose father cannot provide her dowry (cf. Anderson, Barbarian Play, 1993: 90). Euclio makes this clear to Megadorus: uirginem habeo grandem, dote cassam atque inlocabilem, neque eam queo locare quoiquam (191-92). The lack of a dowry serves as the “blocking characteristic” (S. M. Braund, “Marriage, Adultery, and Divorce in Roman Drama” 2005: 41), the temporary obstacle to the marriage. Only the wealthy older man who is opposed to marriage in general (154-57) is willing to wed without a dowry (475-536; cf. Fraenkel, Plautinisches im Plautus, 1922, 131-34); and his intentions are questionable. For stable, legitimate marriages a dowry is considered necessary (Konstan 29). Although Megadorus can shunt aside community needs and expectations, his young nephew – a more appropriate mate for Phaedria – cannot, especially with a mother who promised to find Megadorus a wife cum maxima dote (158; A. Rei, “Villains, Wives, and Slaves” [1988] 96). Never would she, nor the broader community, accept poor Phaedria as wife for her son. Lyconides’ slavish longing for Phaedria (servitutem servire, cf. Trinummus 304), therefore, is what his slave is striving, like a raft for a young swimmer, to protect him from (Segal, Roman Laughter 1968: 57). Yet, once Megadorus has raised the possibility of marrying the undowered Phaedria, it becomes far easier for Lyconides to present a convincing case to his mother for his own marriage with her, especially after their child is born (cf. 148-50; 691-93). The pot of gold becomes a bonus.