contaminatio
- A polluting, contamination, defilement: mulieris, Dig. 48, 5, 2: expositionis, Arn. 5, 168.—*
- II Corruption, disease: ventris, Jul. Obseq. Prodig. 89.
accipe litargiri laminosi et subtilis, quale fit in secunda ~one argenti vel auri, lib. semis
eant alii xij et superjurent eum in ~onem [(v. l. immunditiam; AS: ]gescyldigen hine
ut ‥ lapides ~onis in locum immundum projiciatis [cf. ]I Macc. iv 43
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Jubemus quodquilibet et quælibet leno, qui et quæ vulgariter Ruffiani dicuntur, quorum et quarum suggestione, Contaminatione et industria fuerit seducta aliqua juvenis et mulier honestæ vitæ, etc.
A technical term for the combination of the plots of several Greek plays in a single Roman drama. This was done with considerable ingenuity by both Plautus and Terence. Thus, the Epidicus of Plautus is undoubtedly a specimen of dramatic contamination (Ladewig, in the Zeitschrift für die Alterthumswissenschaft [1841]); and the Andria and Eunuchus of Terence are excellent examples—the former combining the plots of Menander's Ἀνδρία and Περινθία, and the latter the plots of the same poet's Εὐνοῦχος and Κόλαξ. See Ihne, Quaestiones Terentianae (Bonn, 1843); and Kampe, Lustspiele d. Ter. und ihre Originale (Halberstadt, 1884); also the prologue to the Andria. The only instance of a play made up of the plays of two different authors is found in the Adelphoe of Terence, which is based upon the Ἀδελφοί of Menander and the Συναποθνῄσκοντες of Diphilus.