Graeciamque exoticam (v. 236): Imperialist Transactions, Material Exchanges and Literary Transfers in Plautus' Menaechmi
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Abstract
This article offers a rereading of Plautus’ Menaechmi through a combined analysis of dramatic space, institutional vocabulary, and the circulation of stage objects, in order to examine how early Roman comedy actively contributes to the symbolic construction of an emerging imperial experience. Moving beyond interpretations that view Plautine comedy as either a passive reflection of cultural Hellenization or an uncritical celebration of Roman expansion, the article argues that Menaechmi dramatizes processes of cultural appropriation shaped by asymmetries and normative displacements. The study first focuses on the play’s geographical imagination, showing how expressions such as Graeciam exoticam participate in the discursive reorganization of the Mediterranean from a Roman-centered perspective marked by expansion and control. It then examines the pervasive use of juridical, military, and economic vocabulary in interpersonal relationships, revealing how republican categories of power are displaced into domestic and erotic contexts. Finally, the article analyzes the palla as a metapoetic stage object whose circulation materially embodies the process of cultural translation that defines the fabula palliata.
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