SOURCE: "Money Matters in Phormio," The Classical World, Vol. 70, No. 4, January, 1977, pp. 267-69.

In the essay below, Bohm delineates the differing attitudes toward money held by six characters in Phormio.

Terence begins three of his six plays with a protactic character, which Donatus defines as a persona quae semel induct a in principio fabulae in nullis deinceps fabulae partibus adhibetur (ad And. praef. I, 8). Critics have found fault with Terence for his use of such characters. Ashmore, for example, discusses Terence's change of the opening scene of Menander's Andria from a monologue to a dialogue with a protactic character and relates the change to a similar one in Phormio. Although Ash-more praises Terence's attempt to avoid the dullness of a monologue, he describes the introduction of a new character as "merely a mechanical device." [S. G. Ash-more, The Comedies of Terence, 1908]. Similarly, with a specific citation of Davus...