Plautus' Cistellaria (“The Hope Chest”) is a story of young lovers defying poverty, illegitimacy and implacable parents in order to be together, featuring a memorable cast of characters thrown together in moments of both high humor and melodrama amid scenes of witty interchange and lively conflict of values and ideals. This volume is the first book-length introduction to the play, offering an incisive overview for both students and scholars coming to it for the first time.

Drawing on performance and cultural studies, gender and sexuality, and secondary world theory, Ariana Traill combines a lucid exploration of Cistellaria's places, people, plot and key themes with detailed analyses of its literary, historical and socio-cultural contexts. Readers are able to appreciate the play as a literary artefact, with its attendant issues of generic conventions and variations, language and imagery, and also to understand what the experience of watching it as a member of a Roman audience might have been like. With its majoritively female line-up (7 of the 12 roles are female), Cistellaria presents an unusual focus on women's thoughts and feelings as they struggle for their economic and social existence, making it a fascinating source for the historical study of women and gender in ancient Rome, and one which continues to cast a long shadow in the western dramatic tradition through its long history of reception and adaptation.