The Braggart Soldier

The name Artotrogus means “bread-eater,” and as Pyrgopolynices’s parasite, Artotrogus flatters and praises the man because the soldier feeds him. Unlike the soldier he serves, Artotrogus is clever, if not opportunistic. He spins tales of glory that are so convincing that Pyrgopolynices seems to believe that he lived them. Artotrogus admits to the audience that the stories are lies, but he takes advantage of the soldier’s gullibility to make a living for himself. Although he doesn’t return to the stage after his first scene with Pyrgopolynices, the soldier mentions that he sent the parasite to lead the mercenaries he hired to the king. 

Pyrgopolynices’s elderly neighbor, Periplectomenus, offers his home and financial resources to aid Palaestrio in his plot to reunite Pleusicles and Philocomasium. He is kind and offers his help with enthusiasmtic help. Periplectomenus balks at being referred to as an “old man.” When Pleusicles articulates his gratitude for Periplectomenus’s help, he adds, “Yet I am troubled and tormented too […] that I burden someone who’s as old as you with childish trifles. These concerns are so unworthy of your noble qualities. […] I’m ashamed to bring annoyance to you in your twilight years” (23). Periplectomenus becomes offended at this, demanding, “Do I seem so six-feet-under to you— – is that so? Do I seem senile, such a coffin-candidate? After all, I’m barely fifty-four years old— – not even that. I’ve got perfect vision still, my hands are quick, my legs are nimble” (23). Palaestrio, who is much more perceptive than the dim-witted Pleusicles, agrees, “Maybe he’s white-haired on top, but not inside his head— – that’s sure. All the qualities that he was born with haven’t aged a bit” (23). And true to Palaestrio’s compliment, Periplectomenus does not back down from any challenge the slave hands him in the plot to unite the lovers.

Periplectomenus has a tendency totends to babble, continuing to talk even when more pressing issues demand action, which serves as fodder for comedy throughout the play. At the end, however, Periplectomenus (and his servants) physically and mentally dominate the braggart soldier.

The protagonist of the play, Palaestriois a wily, clever slave. For his benevolent and decent Ephesian master, Pleusicles, Palaestrio risks his life to save Pleusicles’s lover, Philocomasium, without expectation of reward for himself. While the other characters have no plan to extricate Philocomasium from the soldier’s house, or how to deal with the problem that arises when one of the soldier’s slaves sees Philocomasium kissing Pleusicles, Palaestrio manages to create a scheme that works perfectly. He is smarter than most of his co-conspirators, and they turn to him for leadership even though he is a slave. The play rewards Palaestrio for his bravery when Pleusicles promises him his freedom upon their escape. While other characters have qualities that make them seem exaggerated or larger than life, Palaestrio functions as a point of entry for the audience as a grounded character who observes carefully and uses only his wit and charm to save the day. While several subsequent Plautine comedies featured the trope of the crafty slave, Palaestrio was the first to be the protagonist, central to the plot and action. 

Sceledra, a slave woman, was originally Sceledrus (a man) in Plautus’s play. In Segal’s adaptation of the play, he changed her gender. She appears twice. First, Palaestrio confronts her after she spots Philocomasium kissing Pleusicles. Sceledra, like the other women in the play, is clever, resisting when Palaestrio tries to manipulate her into disbelieving what she saw. However, in the end, she determines that it is in her own self-interest to agree with Palaestrio’s explanation of events, and to hide until the commotion dies down. At the end of the play, Sceledra boldly informs Pyrgopolynices that he has been tricked. While Palaestrio risks his life to bring back the girl of his kind master, Sceledra opts not to intervene when the girl who her boastful, lecherous master stole manages to escape. 

Pleusicles from Ephesus is Palaestrio’s original master. The prologue describes him as a “fine young man” (2). He inspires Palaestrio’s loyalty, and acts in good faith throughout the play. Although he is kind and fair, Pleusicles is also a bit of an idiot. He has difficulty remembering the instructions that Palaestrio gives him even though he works very hard to memorize his part. When Palaestrio commissions Pleusicles to pretend to be the skipper, he arrives in a ridiculous sailor costume, complete with an eye patch, and recites his lines (in a goofy, affected accent). However, he runs into trouble when Pyrgopolynices asks about his eye patch— – a question that takes him off-script. THowever, thanks to the performance of his lover, Philocomasium, the pair manages to escape together with Palaestrio. He demonstrates his good and honorable nature by quickly promising to free Palaestrio from slavery when they arrive home in Ephesus.

The slave Lurcio appears once when Palaestrio, seeking Sceledra, knocks on the door. Lurcio is drunk and attests that Sceledra is asleep, and  – as Palaestrio deduces, she is also drunk. Like Sceledra, Lurcio decides to run off and hide until the trouble dissipates.

A courtesan from Ephesus, the beautiful Philocomasium has been kidnapped by Pyrgopolynices and taken to Athens. With Palaestrio’s help, she boldly escapes the soldier’s house to see her Ephesian lover, Pleusicles. Philocomasium is much smarter than Pleusicles, and an apparently talented actor who convinces several characters that she is her own twin sister. When Palaestrio tells Philocomasium that she must run back and forth between the two houses to pretend to be both herself and her twin, Philocomasium devises a scheme to get the slaves guarding her drunk to make her escape easier. Her performance of fake sorrow and weeping in response to the soldier’s decision to reject her is so believable that it not only facilitates her flight, but convinces Pyrgopolynices to ease her pain with money and expensive gifts. She even negotiates for Palaestrio’s release, which even he neglected to consider in his plot, opting instead to plan to run away. 

Periplectomenus hires Acroteleutium, a courtesan, and her maid, Milphidippa, to tempt the soldier Pyrgopolynices so that he will inadvertently allow Philocomasium to escape. Like Philocomasium, Acroteleutium shows herself to be a skilled actor. However, she also displays a good-natured dislike and distrust for men. When Periplectomenus comments, “What mangy merchandise a woman is,” Acroteleutium response, “Just like her customers” (29). Acroteleutium despises Pyrgopolynices and is happy to participate in bringing him down. She is smart, and admonishes Palaestrio and Periplectomenus for presuming that she needs the plan explained to her more than once, or that she needs further direction. In fact, Acroteleutium would likely have come up with an even more efficient plan to fool the soldier, as that is her area of expertise. She easily falls intoadopts the role of a divorced wife who falls madly in love with Pyrgopolynices, a man she  actuallyin actuality hates. 

Milphidippa is Acroteleutium’s maid, and her role in the ruse is to convince the soldier that not only is she lusting after him, but that her mistress has sent a ring with her confessions of undying love. She and Palaestrio can barely contain their laughter as she plies the soldier with exaggerated flattery. Milphidippa demonstrates that even as a maid, she is just as intelligent as any man present— – and often more so. Like her mistress, she responds sarcastically to the men’s tendency to check and recheck that she understands her instructions. 

The slave boy appears near the end of the play, when he emerges from Periplectomenus’s house to invite the soldier in and complete the ruse. As he exits the house, he has a comic bit in which he indignantly reassures Periplectomenus that he doesn’t need further coaching and knows what he I supposed to do. Once he has lured Pyrgopolynices into the house, the slave boy addresses the audience, summing up that the solider has “trapped himself, caught in his own devices” (52) as Periplectomenus waits inside to ambush the soldier and give Pyrgopolynices the punishment he deserves for being a “lecher who’s so loud about his loveliness, who thinks that every woman loves him at first sight, when they really detest him, men as well as women” (52).