La dinámica de las transacciones en el teatro plautino:

un análisis de lo aequum en Amphitruo y Poenulus

Abstract

In the plautine corpus, aequum as a notion provides a topic for the transactions between the dramatic entities: the equity of giving and receiving, typical in the economic exchange, reappears as a substrate of legal, religious and social discourses. This article is aimed at elucidating how this concept intervenes in the theatrical frame of Poenulus and Amphitruo. It is analyzed to what extent the transgression or the preservation of the equal exchange can be proposed as a constitutive feature of the personae, by considering the way in which their actions aim at restoring the equitable conditions when imbalances arise in the ius. Finally, the effects on reception by the audience are considered, insofar as the persuasive intentionality of the dramatic action proposes a transition from inaequalitas to aequalitas.