2016-04-28 Thu

The 2.200th death anniversary of the Roman playwright Tito Maccio Plauto was observed by Italy by issuing a commemorative €2 coin in March 2016.

Plauto lived from circa 254 to 184 B.C. and his comedies are the oldest Latin literary works to have survived in a completely intact state. The obverse features theatre masks representing his style of New Comedy, the young woman and the slave, with a construction plan of a Roman theatre, the dates 184 B.C. and 2016, and his name, PLAUTO in Italian. Other inscriptions include ‘RI’, logo of the Italian Republic, and the initials of the designer.

The reverse carries the common European map design.