2 euros 2016 Italy – Titus Maccius Plautus

Description

The coin is dedicated to the 2200th anniversary of the death of Titus Maccius Plautus. Titus Maccius Plautus, commonly known as Plautus, was a Roman playwright of the Old Latin period. His comedies are the earliest Latin literary works to have survived in their entirety. He wrote Palliata comoedia, the genre devised by the innovator of Latin literature, Livius Andronicus. The word Plautine refers to both Plautus’s own works and works similar to or influenced by his.

The center of the coin occupy two scenic masks depicted in a mosaic made with polychrome marble. The masks belong to two “types” of the New Comedy, developed during the Hellenistic period. The female mask depicts a woman with big eyes and mouth wide open, while the man’s facial features are accentuated and ridiculed. Above THE masks the initials “IR” of the issuing country (Italian Republic) and the MINTmark of the Italian mint in Rome “R”.