Aulularia is a Latin play by the early Roman playwright Titus Maccius Plautus. The title literally means The Little Pot, but some translators provide The Pot of Gold, and the plot revolves around a literal pot of gold
“In one hand he is carrying a stone, while he shows the bread with the other.”
Altera manu fert lapidem, panem ostentot altera
Alternate translation: And so he thinks to ‘tice me like a dog, by holding bread in one hand, and a stone, ready to knock my brains out, in the other.
Aulularia, Act II, sc. 2, line 18
Cf. Jesus, [Matthew, 7:9, KJV]: "Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?"
Aulularia (The Pot of Gold)
“If you are but content, you have enough to live upon with comfort.”
Si animus est aequus tibi, satis habes, qui bene vitam colas.
Aulularia, Act II, sc. 2, line 10
Aulularia (The Pot of Gold)
“It was not for nothing that the raven was just now croaking on my left hand.”
Aulularia, Act iv, sc. 3, 1; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919). Referenced in "That raven on yon left-hand oak/(Curse on his ill-betiding croak!)/Bodes me no good", John Gay, 'Fables, Part I, The Farmer’s Wife and the Raven.
Aulularia (The Pot of Gold)
“I had a regular battle with the dunghill-cock.”
Aulularia, Act III, sc. 4, 13; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
Aulularia (The Pot of Gold)
