Phormio

Phormio is a comedy in Latin by Terence, the Roman playwright of the second century BC. It is based on the Epidikazomenos ("The Claimant") by the Greek comic writer Apollodorus of Carystus, a lost play that also served as the model for Terence's Hecyra. The production record places its premiere in 161 BC at the Ludi Romani or Ludi Megalenses, although the prologue suggests it was the author's third play. It is also the only Terentian comedy to drop its Greek title in favour of a Latin one, a point the prologue itself makes.

Its first reception was lukewarm, but the play grew in popularity after Terence's death. Cicero and Quintilian refer to it with approval, and the name of its title character came to describe someone who argues boldly about matters he does not understand. Structurally, it is often regarded as one of the finest Roman comedies.

The plot centres on two young Athenians, Antipho and Phaedria, cousins and sons of two elderly brothers, Demipho and Chremes, who leave the city on business and entrust the young men to a slave, Geta. Phaedria falls in love with a lyre-player owned by a slave-dealer but lacks the money to buy her. Antipho, meanwhile, marries Phanium, a poor orphan, thanks to a stratagem devised by the parasite Phormio. Exploiting a law that obliged the nearest kinsman of an heiress either to marry her or to support her, Phormio claims in court that Antipho is that relative.

The situation grows complicated when the old men return and discover what has happened. Demipho tries to annul the marriage, but Chremes has a secret of his own: Phanium is his daughter, born from an earlier liaison on Lemnos. Once this is revealed, Demipho has no choice but to accept the match. In the end every character is pardoned for their misdeeds, from Chremes, forgiven by his wife Nausistrata, to Phormio himself, whose schemes are ultimately admired for their ingenuity.