Introduction

This chapter introduces Plautus’s Casina, including the play’s context within the genre of Roman comedy called fabula palliata, a discussion of the sorts of people who would have been in the audience when the play was produced in early second century BCE Rome, and a brief plot summary. A more detailed explanation of Roman social norms and hierarchies follows, to show how Plautus overturned some of these norms for comedic effect. In particular, the chapter explains why Roman audiences would have enjoyed seeing Lysidamus and Olympio humiliated and assaulted in the play, since they represent people who, in the real Roman world, would have held frightening amounts of power over their subordinates. The status of women in Plautine Rome is discussed as context for the unusually positive and central role played by the married woman Cleustrata in the play.