Plautus: Epidicus

Plautus' comedy Epidicus has the most convoluted, complicated and recursive plot in all known ancient Greek and Roman literature – despite being shorter than all but two other plays that survive in full from ancient drama. The play is filled with doubles and triples: two soldiers, three lyre-players, two love objects, two old men, two young men, three deception plots and three pairs of scenes where one person momentously recognizes – or momentously doesn't recognize – someone else.

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