In this and each succeeding volume a summary will be given of the
consensus of opinion[1] regarding the Greek originals of the plays in
the volume and regarding the time of presentation in Rome of Plautus’s
adaptations. It may be that some general readers will be glad to have
even so condensed an account of these matters as will be offered them.

The original of the _Amphitruo_ is not now thought to have been a work
of the Middle Comedy but of the New Comedy, very possibly Philemon’s
Νὺξ μακρά. A clue to the Greek play’s date is found in the
description of Amphitryon’s battle with the Teloboians,[2] a battle
fought after the manner of those of the Diadochi who came into
prominence at the death of Alexander the Great. The date of the
Plautine adaptation of this play, as in the case of the _Asinaria_,
_Aulularia_, _Bacchides_,[3] and _Captivi_, is quite uncertain, beyond
the fact that it no doubt belongs, like almost all of his extant work,
to the last two decades of his life, 204-184 B.C. The _Amphitruo_ is
one of the five[4] plays in the first two volumes whose scene is not
laid in Athens.

The Ὀναγός of a certain Demophilus,[5] otherwise unknown to us, was
the onginal of the _Asinaria._ The assertion of Libanus that he is his
master’s Salus[6] is thought to be a fling at the honours decreed
certain of the Diadochi, who were called, while still alive, Σωτῆρες.
This possibility, together with the fact that the Pellaean[7] merchant
and the Rhodian[8] Periphanes travel to Athens-- northern Greece and the
Aegaean therefore being pacified and Athens at peace with Macedon--would
indicate that the Ὀναγός was written while Demetrius Poliorcetes
controlled Macedon, 294-288 B.C.

Very slender evidence connects the _Aulularia_ with some unknown play