Talk:Poenulus

Questions

 * Who is the puny Punic? Quite a number of the characters are family, aren't they all all Punic? Who is the puny one? Or does it refer to the play itself?
 * If Hanno is the cousin of Agorastocles' parents, doesn't that make him Agorastocles' cousin once removed and doesn't that therefore make the girls, who are Hanno's daughters, Agorastocles' second cousins? Is Agorastocles marrying close family? Did he know this at the start of the story?
 * If Hanno is there to save the day using perfectly straightforward means, what was the point, narratively, of the scheme? Did Plautus write himself into a corner and use Hanno a deus ex machina?
 * What can we tell about Roman or Romano-Punic society from this play?
 * For discussion on the Punic text, this article refers to another article, but that article only deals with that section as an ancient source of written Punic. It says nothing about the purpose of the text in the play. I assume it's for flavour?


 * The play is an adaptation of a Greek play, so it tells us nothing about Roman society (except that there were people in Rome in 200 BC who could speak Punic, the language of Carthage). One thing it tells you about ancient Mediterranean society is that piracy and slaving was common. Presumably, as you surmise, Hanno speaks Punic for flavour and authenticity. The arrival of Hanno is necessary to the plot so that the girls' true parentage can be recognised. Kanjuzi (talk) 18:44, 7 November 2023 (UTC)