Quotes from work
Bacchides

Bacchides
Plautus Original title Bacchides (Latin)

Bacchides is a Latin play by the early Roman playwright Titus Maccius Plautus. The title has been translated as The Bacchises, and the plot revolves around the misunderstandings surrounding two sisters, each called Bacchis, who work in a local house of ill-repute. It includes Plautus' frequent theme of clever servants outwitting their supposed superiors.


Plautus photo

“Man proposes, God disposes. (translated by Thornton)”
Sperat quidem animus : quo eveniat, diis in manu est

Bacchides Act I, scene 2, line 36.
Variant translation: The mind is hopeful : success is in God’s hands. (translator unknown)
Bacchides (The Bacchises)

Plautus photo

“He whom the gods protect : the youth is dying whilst he is in health, and has his senses and his judgment sound.”
Quem di diligent, adolescens moritur, dum valet, sentit, sapit.

Bacchides Act IV, scene 7, line 18.
Variant translation: He whom the gods love dies young. (translator unknown)
Derived from Menander's The Double Deceiver; but only the Plautine version was known until the rediscovery of Menander in the 20th century; sometimes translated as "favor" instead of "love".
Bacchides (The Bacchises)

Plautus photo

“For him I reckon lost who’s lost to shame.”
Nam ego illum periisse duco, cui quidem periit pudor.

Bacchides Act III, scene 3, line 80.
Variant translation: I regard that man as lost, who has lost his sense of shame. (translator unknown)
Bacchides (The Bacchises)

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