Titus Maccius Plautus (c. 254-184 BCE), commonly known as Plautus, was a Roman playwright of the Old Latin period. His comedies are the earliest surviving intact works in Latin literature. The Menaechmi, his best known comedy, is about mistaken identity, involving a set of twins, Menaechmus of Epidamnus and Menaechmus of Syracuse. It incorporates various Roman stock characters including the parasite, the comic courtesan, the comic servant, the domineering wife, the doddering father-in-law and the quack doctor.
Translated by Frank O. Copley.