40 The Rev. J. Hamilton on the Punic Passage in Plautus, 



granted hospitality there, that the accounts he had were, that the old man had died 

 in opulent circumstances, and that the son, moreover, had established his residence 

 there, that, thougli personally unknown to him, he himself had brought as a 

 token of truth the tessera along with him, and that he had been informed on 

 good authority that in those quarters his friend's habitations lay, resolving to pro- 

 ceed that way to the high place, where he should see the Bivium or square, and 

 make inquiry of the persons going out from the houses ; — we shall have nearly 

 to the letter the remaining part of the Punic Monologue. This we now proceed 

 to consider. 



In explicating the passage in detail we must bear in mind, that on the prin- 

 ciples laid down in the preceding paragraph, our traveller will, in reference to 

 former hospitalities, felicitate himself, not simply on having received them, but 

 received them in virtue o^ federal connexion which insured to him the benefit of 

 them in future. In allusion to the death of his personal friend we will allude, not 

 merely to his having died but having died rich. In allusion to his heir not merely 

 his being here in the town, but having a house and establishment here ; and his 

 reference to the tessera would go to imply, not merely his having, but expecting 

 to use it as a token or ticket of introduction. 



It may be added, that on reaching the quarter of the town in which was 

 situated the residence of his friend, his most direct way of obtaining informa- 

 tion and assistance would be to appear upon the Bivium, or High Place, at the 

 head of the Bivium, where hospitable and wealthy residents accosted and invited 

 strangers who had no fixed host; and to which strangers looking for their 

 hereditary hosts resorted to meet and be recognized by them. 



It may clear our way, moreover, to observe here, that the Punic may be divided 

 into three triplets, (besides the Invocation which takes up the first line). The 

 first triplet includes the journey and prayer for its success, the recovery and 

 abduction of the children, and the parenthetic imprecation. The second triplet 

 refers to the hospitalities Hanno had enjoyed in the house of Antidamas, to the 

 information he had of his son and heir having also set up house in tlie same city, 

 with a parenthetic line between respecting the old man's fortunes and decease. 

 Jn the third triplet the penultimate line alludes to the quarter of the town he had 

 arrived at as the locus of the young man's residence, and the last, to the very 

 street of it, which he proposes to proceed to, with a parenthesis in this triplet also 



