Titus Maccius Plautus was one of several comic playwrights writing in Latin c. 200 bc. Victorious in the Second Punic War, and flexing its military muscles in North Africa and in Greece, Rome had begun to establish itself as an ancient superpower. The development of Roman New Comedy (the fabulae palliatae, or ‘plays in Greek dress’ as they came to be called, from pallium, a Greek cloak) coincided with this growth, and reflected a sophisticated, cosmopolitan attitude shared by the Hellenistic Greek world. Rome was also consciously cultivating a sense of ‘literature’ for the Latin language, and theatre was at the forefront in this cultural programme.

Plautus is the best-represented playwright from antiquity, with twenty plays surviving more or less complete, plus significant fragments. Though much of his work is lost, Plautus remains the earliest Latin author whose complete literary works survive. Even dating the plays of Plautus is notoriously uncertain, though it is generally thought they were written between c. 205 and 184 bc. A generation later, Publius Terentius Afer (Terence) wrote six palliatae, also surviving, produced between 166 and 160. The plays of Plautus continued to be performed at least until the end of the republic, and there are indications Terence was performed into the fourth century ad. Both authors have influenced modern European comic playwrights from Elizabethan times until the present, and the humour has proved resilient and capable of crossing linguistic and cultural borders.