How did Menander’s New Comedy influence Roman playwrights Plautus and Terence?

Menander’s New Comedy served as the foundational model for the Roman fabula palliata, a genre of comedy performed in Greek dress. Roman playwrights Plautus and Terence adapted Menander’s stock characters—such as the cunning slave, the boastful soldier, and the wily merchant—and his conventionalized plots of romantic intrigue to create a distinct Roman drama.123

While both drew from Menander, their approaches differed significantly:

• Plautus: He used Greek plots as a framework but transformed them with Roman customs, Italian place-names, and Latin puns. His style was characterized by boisterous humor, slapstick, and musical variety, often making his plays feel like original works rather than mere translations. He also employed contaminatio, the practice of combining scenes from different Greek plays into one.142
• Terence: He remained closer to the spirit and psychology of his Greek originals. His style was more polished, graceful, and psychologically nuanced, focusing on refined language and character development rather than the slapstick force of Plautus. Like Plautus, he also utilized contaminatio to integrate material from secondary sources.152

Through these adaptations, the conventions of Greek New Comedy were preserved and eventually influenced European theater from the Renaissance onward.13