The Weevil, Plautus’s shortest and liveliest comedy.
The parasitic Weevil lives at the expense of the young and distinguished Phaedromus, who is deeply in love with the beautiful and sweet Planesia, a young girl who was kidnapped as a child and now a slave in the service of the pimp Cappadocian.
Phaedromus needs money to free his beloved, so he sends Weevil to Caria to obtain it. There he meets his employer’s rival, the soldier Therapontigonus. In the game, Weevil steals the ring with which he deceives Lycon, the soldier’s banker. Lycon recognizes the ring’s seal, forcing him to give the agreed-upon money to the pimp. Upon receiving it, he hands the young Planesia over to Weevil and Phaedromus.
The confused soldier, robbed and deceived, threatens the banker and the pimp. The lovers stumble upon it, and through the ring, the comical and absurd plot that leads to the platonic ending is revealed.