Gender, Class and Roman Rhetoric: Assessing the Writing of Plautus' Phoenicium ( Pseudolus 41–73)

Judith P. Hallett University of Maryland, College Park

Abstract

Abstract At Pseudolus 41–73 Plautus represents the slave Pseudolus as reading a passionate letter from the courtesan Phoenicium to his master, Calidorus. Pseudolus and Calidorus offer strikingly different reactions to the letter. Calidorus praises its style and content, but Pseudolus ridicules both—with a string of sexual insults. In this essay I focus upon gender and class as factors in the literary reception of Phoenicium's writing in Plautus' comedy. My discussion compares the writing attributed to Phoenicium with several second century BCE texts by men. In light of these comparisons, I argue that Pseudolus unfairly holds Phoenicium's writing to standards different from those applied to males, and I suggest that social class—that of the critic as well as the writer—played a complex role in the public assessment of what Roman women said and how they said it.

Journal
Advances in the History of Rhetoric
Published
2006-01-01
DOI
10.1080/15362426.2006.10557260
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