Plautus’ Curculio, the shortest of the twenty surviving comedies by ancient Rome’s master dramatist, certainly is among his best. It has all the characteristics that make Plautus a perennial favorite among readers of Latin: archetypal characters such as the braggart warrior and the greedy parasite, a seminal plot based on greed and deception, and the powerful, inventive verbal style that for two thousand years has been the playwright’s chief claim to critical attention.
For all those reasons, the Curculio is an excellent introduction to an important and appealing ancient writer. In the revision of the American Philological Association edition, the introduction and notes have been expanded and a vocabulary has been added. Because it retains the standard scholarly Latin text, it will be useful even to advanced readers of Plautus.