-lost daughters, whom he has spent a
lifetime in seeking, before disclosing his identity to them (1211 ff.).
Saturio's daughter in the _Per._ is at one time the very model of maidenly
modesty and wisdom (336 ff.), at others an accomplished intriguante and
demi-mondaine (549 ff., esp. 607 ff.). When the plot of the _Ep._ is
getting hopelessly tangled, of a sudden it is magically resolved as by a
deus ex machina and everybody decides to "shake and make up."

Slaves ever fearful of the mills or quarries are yet prone to the most
abominable "freshness" towards their masters. The irrepressible Pseudolus
in reading a letter from Calidorus' mistress says (27 ff.):

"What letters! Humph! I'm afraid the Sibyl is the only person capable of
interpreting these.

"CAL. Oh why do you speak so rudely of those lovely letters written on a
lovely tablet with a lovely hand?

"PS. Well, would you mind telling me if hens have hands? For these look to
me very like hen-scratches.

"CAL. You insulting beast! Read, or return the tablet!

"PS. Oh, I'll read all right, all right. Just focus your mind on this.

"CAL. _(Pointing vacantly to his head._) Mind? It's not here.

"PS. What! Go get one quick then![162]."

In order that the machinations of these cunning slaves may mature, it is
usually necessary to portray their victims as the veriest fools. Witness
the cock-and-bull story by which Stasimus, in _Trin._ 515 ff., convinces
Philto that his master's land is an undesirable real estate prospect.
Dordalus in _Per._ (esp. 493 ff.) exhibits a certain amount of caution in
face of Toxilus' "confidence game," but that he should be victimized at
all stamps him as a caricature.

LeGrand is certainly right in pronouncing the cunning slave a pure
convention, adapted from the Greek and so unsuitable to Roman society that
even Plautus found it necessary to apologize for their unrestrained
gambols, on the ground that 'that was the way they did in Athens!'[163]

Certain of the characters are caricatures _par excellence_, embodiments of
a single attribute. Leaena of the _Cur._ is the perpetually thirsty
_lena_: "Wine, wine, wine!"[164] Cleaerata of the _As._ is a plain
caricature, but is exceptionally cleverly drawn as the _lena_ with the
mordant tongue. Phronesium's thirst in the _Truc._, is gold, gold, gold!
The _danista_ of the _Most._ finds the whole expression of his nature in
the cry of "Faenus!"[165] Assuredly, he is the progenitor of the mod