Trinummus, Three Coins or The Man of the Three Coins is a play by the Latin playwright Plauto.

Trinummus is an interesting piece of family in whose action noble characters play whose purity of feelings remind us of the drama Los Cautivos. This piece could be titled more properly The hidden treasure or The dissipater but Plautus has the whim to forge the titles of his works of any incident of little importance.

Trinummus had to be represented before the year 560 of Rome. The original is from Philemon. Argument

Cármides, finding himself obliged to undertake a long journey, leaves his friend Caricles in charge of his affairs, revealing to him that he has a treasure hidden in his house and begging him to give his daughter in dowry in case of perishing. Lesbónico, son of Carmides, is a young man of good background but prodigal. During the absence of his father he dissipates almost all his fortune and decides to sell the father's house in which the treasure is hidden so that to put him safely without having to reveal the secret, the faithful friend of the family is needed. buy the property even though appearances can condemn his act. The daughter of Cármides is asked of her brother in marriage by a friend of his. Caricles, wanting to comply loyally with the commission of Cármides without discovering the mystery of the treasure, makes Lesbónico believe that a servant of his father has brought the necessary sum to endow the girl according to the rank of her family. One of the numerous agents of intrigues that for a small salary were rented in Rome for any effort, the Trinummus that gives name to the comedy lends itself to appear as messenger of Cármides. But all this noble machination is spoiled because at the very moment in which it is going to be carried out, Carmides himself shows up in anger when he learns that Cáricles has bought the house. But after everything is discovered, he hastens to reward the prudential prudence of his friend and asks for a daughter of his to marry her with Lesbónico while the projected nuptials of the girl to whom the father gives splendidly are carried out. The drama concludes with the protests of repentance of the lesbian dissipater. In this piece, as in the Captives, women do not intervene.

This article contains material from the Classical Latin Literature Lessons (1882) by A. González Garbín, which is in the public domain.

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