Asinaria ("The Comedy of Asses") is a comic play written in Latin by the Roman playwright Titus Maccius Plautus.
But a jealous rival, Diabolus, snitches on Demaenetus to his wife Artemona, who storms to the brothel and prevents her husband from enjoying the girl as well.
[12] The initial reversal of roles comes from Demenetus and his wife Artemona, as he is the dependent on her dowry and she implicitly plays the strict paterfamilias.
Moreover, by introducing Demenetus in the role of a rival, Plautus disturbs the classical paradigm of the love triangle present in Miles Gloriosus (play) and Pseudolus.
In this play, Demenetus is ostensibly cast as a senex, but he denies both the audience and his slave Libanus in their expectations to get angry over his son's affair with a prostitute.
His relation with Argyrippus is then set against Cleareta's with her daughter, both having lost the respect traditionally due to this position, one by a lack of funds and the second by her occupation.
The theme of materialism pervades the play, turning Asinaria into a defense of the ethical structure of the ancient patriarchal family than against money and passion.