Plautus' frequent forgetfulness of his Greek environment and the
interjection of Roman references--what De Quincey calls "anatopism"--is
another item of careless composition too well known to need more than
passing mention. The repeated appearance of the _Velabrum,_[179] or
_Capitolium,_[180] or _circus,_[181] or _senatus_, or _dictator_,[182] or
_centuriata comitio,_[183] or _plebiscitum,_[184] and a host of others in
the Greek investiture, becomes after a while a matter of course to us. We
see however no need to quarrel with _forum_; it was Plautus' natural
translation for a1/4EuroI cubedI?II. But it all adds inevitably and relentlessly to
our argument--Plautus was heedless of the petty demands of technique and
realism. His attention was too much occupied in devising means of
amusement.
The occasional topical allusions belong in the same category as above; for
example, the allusion to the Punic war (_Cis._ 202),[185] the _lex
Platoria_ (_Ps._ 303, _Rud._ 1381-2), Naevius' imprisonment (_Mil. _
211-2), Attalus of Pergamum (_Per._ 339, _Poen._ 664), Antiochus the Great
(_Poen._ 693-4). Again we have a modern parallel: the topics of the day
are a favorite resort of the lower types of present-day stage production.