The Pot of Gold: Plautus’ representation of Augustan Roman society

The Pot of Gold

Plautus

Q. The Pot of Gold: Plautus’ representation of Augustan Roman society.

Answer: Aulularia or The Pot of Gold is a scathing social document on the growing disparity between the rich and the poor, within Roman society in the time of Plautus. The playwright is well aware of the disparate social classes of Euclio and Megadorus. We learn of this when Euclio says: “The first thing that occurs to me, Megadorus, is that you are a rich man, a man of influence, and I am a poor man, poorest of the poor.

And the second thing that occurs to me is that for me to make you my son-in-law would be like yoking an ox with an ass; you’d be the ox and I’d be the ass. Unfit to pull my portion of the heap, I, the ass, would be left rambling in the mud, and you, the bull, would take no more notification of me that, if I had never been born. I should be out of your class and my class would disown me; if there were a question of divorce or anything like that. My balance in either stable would be entirely temperamental. The Ashes would be at me with their teeth and the bulls with their horns. It is asking for trouble for an ass to promote himself to the bull-pen”. (The Pot of Gold, lines. 213 – 256)

However, Plautus’ aim in his comedies is not a didactic one. Therefore, he makes masterful use of socio economic gap between various characters in The Pot of Gold by treating these as a source for comedy (Euclio's attempts at describing Staphyla, Megadorus and himself are demeaning, but they also provoke laughter).

This issue is also addressed in a witty by play involving the preparation for the nuptials where Plautus introduces alongside certain minor characters such as stewards, flute players, music girls and cooks, and Perysinaskis observers that it portrays “slave characters of uncertain identity and mission, and the longest episode involving cooks in all of Roman stage.

Several misunderstandings, mistaken identities, word-plays, implausible situations and ribaldry add to the comic element in the play. The slaves not only represent a contemporary social reality, but they also help to advance the plot towards the peripeteia, as Euclio is convinced to seemed the pot of gold to a new hiding place lest it be discovered.

Lyconides' slave, Strobilus is particularly relevant in this regard because it is he who manages to steal the notorious pot of gold despite Euclio’s great measures, and this completely shatters the miser, proving the futility of greed.

Also, the status of women and slaves in contemporary Roman society are other social aspects that The Pot of Gold comments on.

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