Play: Casina

Overview
Plautus's Casina (c. 185 BCE) is a raucous Roman adaptation of Greek New Comedy, set in Athens and driven by a household power struggle. A foundling girl, Casina, raised as a slave in a respectable home, becomes the object of competing schemes. The lecherous master, Lysidamus, wants her for himself by marrying her to his compliant bailiff, while his sharp-witted wife, Cleostrata, works to protect Casina for their absent son, Euthynicus, who loves her. What follows is a contest of wiles featuring bribery, cross-dressing, a fake wedding, and a public unmasking that restores order and mocks male pretensions.

Setup and Rival Schemes
Casina’s ambiguous status, as a house-born slave with the beauty and bearing of a freeborn maiden, makes her desirable and vulnerable. The plot ignites when Lysidamus, past his prime and thoroughly smitten, decides to secure access to Casina by arranging her marriage to his steward, Olympio. The plan is simple: once Casina is legally attached to Olympio, Lysidamus will share her as his private pleasure. Cleostrata sees through him instantly. To block the move and safeguard Casina until Euthynicus returns, she champions a rival suitor from the household staff, the frank and hot-blooded slave Chalinus, trusting that a marriage aligned with her interests will thwart her husband’s lust.

To keep the domestic war from exploding, the family agrees to an ostensible solution: draw lots to determine whether Olympio or Chalinus wins Casina. Each side tries to fix the outcome. Lysidamus enlists a neighbor, Alcesimus, to tilt the process; Cleostrata counters with Alcesimus’s formidable wife, Myrrhina, who openly shames the old man’s behavior and throws her weight behind Cleostrata. Despite the tug-of-war, Olympio is proclaimed the winner, and the household hurtles toward a wedding that promises anything but matrimony.

The Wedding Ruse and Farce
Cleostrata outwardly concedes defeat and even arranges the bridal rites, complete with trousseau and ceremonial fuss. Her apparent compliance is a lure. Under the veil meant for Casina she installs Chalinus, disguised as the bride and guarded by loyal maids who relish the prank. Lysidamus and Olympio, flushed with anticipation and boasting in lewd asides, prepare to consummate the scheme in a darkened chamber or at a country cottage, depending on the telling. The payoff is pure Plautine farce: as the men grope toward their triumph, the “bride” turns on them. Chalinus, still veiled, thrashes Olympio and drives off Lysidamus with invective and blows, while the household and neighbors converge to witness the humiliation. The exposure is public, noisy, and devastating to the old man’s dignity.

Recognition and Resolution
Amid the uproar comes a tidying of status that makes a real marriage possible. A recognition scene, via tokens and testimony, confirms that Casina is in fact freeborn, the long-lost daughter of a respectable Athenian citizen. As a free woman, she cannot be married to a slave, and the sham union collapses on legal as well as moral grounds. Cleostrata reasserts control of the house; Lysidamus, cowed by ridicule and outmaneuvered, begs pardon. With Euthynicus due to return, the path opens for a legitimate match between him and Casina, aligning desire with social order and rewarding the wife’s strategic patience.

Themes and Tone
Casina lampoons the lust of aging men and celebrates female solidarity and domestic intelligence. Plautus builds comic energy from verbal sparring, musical interludes, and metatheatrical asides that let slaves and women narrate and steer the action. The lot-drawing, the veiled “bride,” and the darkened-bedroom reversal are textbook Plautine devices that convert a household dispute into uproarious theater while quietly affirming consent, status, and the rule of law over brute desire.