Pseudolus

Rome, at the end of the third century BCE, had surprising points of continuity and connection to America in the 1960. In A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Pseudolus has many interactions with the upper classes that simultaneously skewer 1960s American culture and ancient Roman culture. Pseudolus’ ability to lie and manage different situations renders the work an in-depth commentary on Roman culture that also skewers American racial and social relations in the 1960s. When Hero confides in Pseudolus about his love for Philia, the plot moves forward not just with a traditional caper or romantic comedy, but also with an interaction between social classes that offers commentary on both cultures. Keith Bradley emphasizes that slavery
Individual slaves were set free, sold, rewarded, or punished by their owners, the men, women and at times children who utterly dominated their lives, which means that the institution
It is also a historical reference to the strange and complex global trade routes of the Mediterranean. The movement of people through the Mediterranean in this time was surprisingly complex and the area constituted an early global region in terms of its commerce and trade routes. Thus, it is believable that a well-off merchant might lose his children to pirates and they might become slaves. However, the connection to American life in the 1960s is also strong. Audiences could also understand Erronius, a very old man in the film, as a stand-in for the more gullible, older generations of Americans, most of whom did not understand the significant social changes occurring in this time. The divide between the older generation and the younger generation has seldom been more apparent in American history, and during this contentious decade, in which younger people rose up against the policies of the older generation through, for example, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and truly achieved change. Erronius is a benign old man in the film who searches for his lost children, which could be understood more wryly within 1960s America as the older generation truly losing touch with the younger generation’s mores and