1 Explōrātiō Prīma (I) Adventure One
Plautus’ Menaechmi
Pronouns
The Verb Sum Predicates Adjectives Tenses
Campus Martius, Rōma Mēnsis Martius
M. Fulviō Cn. Manliō Vulsō cōnsulibus
A
Campus Martius, Rome March, 189 B.C.E.
few days later, Latinitas returned. I had begun to suspect her visit was a hallucination, or, if it wasn’t, that she would never come back because I failed to recite the poem three times like she told me to. Seeing her back in the apartment thus came as a shock. But as
I was about to open my mouth, she warned me to keep silent, holding her finger to her lips. Coming closer she whispered, Salvē, “hello.” She served me another liquid, one with a heavier taste, and when I drank it, we were suddenly in a different place and time.
This was the scene. We were perched on top of a set of wooden bleachers facing a wooden stage. A muddy field stretched around us, in the bend of a river that was silty but swift-moving. Some stray pigs were rooting through piles of trash. The hills around us were covered in mudbrick houses, a few larger buildings, like small square castles, jutting out here and there. Through an atmosphere hazy with the smoke of cooking fires I could also make out the sloping roofs of temples, supported by capitals and columns.
Before us there were three actors on the stage. They wore masks with wild expressions, striking poses as they spoke. Ūnus, duō, trēs, Latinitas said, pointing at them and counting on her fingers; one, two, three. It was not easy to hear – the crowd, both men and women, was very loud – but I understood the numbers. With a grand gesture of her arm Latinitas began to speak:
“These are my people! This is the city of Rome; that, the Tiber river. My birthplace lies not far from here, to the east. We are watching a play, a comedy, called the Menaechmi. It’s a story of
two brothers, identical twins separated at birth, one named Menaechmus, the other, Sosicles. Menaechmus was kidnapped while young and grew up in Greece. Sosicles grew up in their native city, Syracuse, in Sicily, and was given his lost brother’s name. Sosicles-Menaechmus sailed from Syracuse to Greece, accompanied by his slave Messenio, to search for his brother. There Messenio stumbles upon the original Menaechmus without knowing it; he ends up running errands for both men, who he thinks are the same person. Sed, but… in the final scene of the play, Messenio finally realizes what is going on: geminī sunt, they are twins.
“Titus Maccius Plautus,” she continued, “is the playwright. Plautus learned his craft while working as a stagehand and serving as an actor before he started writing plays. All of them were comedies; by the time he died, he had written nearly 50 scripts. He was extremely popular and deserved it. I don’t care if he only wrote comedies. Quisquis erat, whoever he was, he was a good boy, full of good sentences. Don’t believe it, my dear, if you don’t want to, but we were lovers for a time, in that period of time you call ‘the past’.”
The actors were in the middle of the revelation scene that formed the climax of the play. I did not understand their lines, although their hand gestures and intonation made the flow of the conversation clear. Later, with Latinitas’ help, I made a translation I will share with you. The exchange went something like this. I have given you the Latin so that you can practice pronouncing it. I don’t expect you to understand what is being said, any more than she expected me to. But see if you can read the Latin out loud:
MENAECHMUS Hello, young man – you who saved me, whoever you are.
MESSENIO Young man, please say your name for me, if it’s no trouble.
MENAECHMUS You’ve served me so well it’s no trouble to obey
your wishes. My name is Menaechmus. SOSICLES Actually that’s my name. MENAECHMUS I’m a Sicilian from Syracuse. SOSICLES My city and country are the same. MENAECHMUS What am I hearing from you? SOSICLES This, which is fact.
MENAECHMUS Ō adulescēns, salvē, quī mē servāvistī, quisquis es. MESSENIO Adulescēns, quaesō hercle ēloquere tuum mihi nōmen, nisi piget. MENAECHMUS Nōn edepol ita prōmeruistī dē mē, ut pigeat, quae velīs, obsequī. mihi est Menaechmō nōmen. SOSICLES Immō edepol mihi.
MENAECHMUS Siculus sum Syrācūsānus. SOSICLES Eadem urbs et patria est mihi.
MENAECHMUS Quid ego ex tē audiō? SOSICLES Hoc quod rēs est.
MESSENIO I know this man: he’s my master.
I’m actually the slave of this man, but I believed myself to be the slave of him. I thought this man was you, I even gave this person trouble –
Please excuse me if I said anything stupid and thoughtless.
SOSICLES You seem delirious to me. Don’t you remember
coming off the ship with me today? MESSENIO Indeed a fair question to ask: you’re a master. You, look for your slave. Greetings to you, sir; goodbye to you. This man, I say, is Menaechmus.
MESSENIO Nōvī equidem hunc: erus est meus.
ego quidem huius servus sum, sed mē esse huius crēdidī. ego hunc cēnsēbam tē esse, huic etiam exhibuī negōtium. quaesō ignoscās sī quid stultē dīxī atque imprūdēns tibi.
SOSICLES Dēlīrāre mihi vidēre: nōn commeministī simul
tē hodiē mēcum exīre ex nāve? MESSENIO Enim vērō aequum postulās. tū erus es: tū servum quaere. tū salvētō: tū valē.
hunc ego esse aiō Menaechmum.
MENAECHMUS But I’m saying I am. SOSICLES What sort of story is this?
You’re Menaechmus? MENAECHMUS I’d say so, a son born to my father Moschus. SOSICLES You were born to my father? MENAECHMUS No, my father, young man. Your father – I’m not seeking to claim or steal him.
MESSENIO Immortal gods! Give me the unhoped-for hope that I suspect; For unless my mind deceives me, these men are twins, two brothers-by-birth!
MENAECHMUS At ego mē. SOSICLES Quae haec fabula est?
tū es Menaechmus? MENAECHMUS Mē esse dīcō, Moschō prōgnātum patre.
SOSICLES Tūn meō patre es prōgnātus? MENAECHMUS Immō equidem, adulescēns, meō; tuum tibi neque occupāre neque praeripere postulō.
MESSENIO Dī immortālēs, spem insperātam date mihi quam suspicor. nam nisi mē animus fallit, hī sunt geminī germānī duō!
Latinitas interrupted. “What do you say? You think you can understand some of this? Ō dī atque deae, o gods and goddesses, come and help us! My friend here knows so little about Latin right now. You have your book? Open it.” And I did.