Set in ancient Athens, the play describes how an Athenian gentleman and his son are both in love with the same slave-girl, Casina.
[3] According to the prologue (which appears to have been written for a revival some years after Plautus's death),[3] the play is adapted from a comedy called Klerumenoi ("The Lot-Casters") by the Greek playwright Diphilus.
[4][5] Unlike other Plautus plays, where references to homosexuality are either fleeting or present as jokes directed at characters with identifiable feminine characteristics, in Casina it has a more prominent and less stereotypical role.
The plot revolves about a beautiful girl, Casina, who was abandoned at the door of Lysidamus and his wife Cleostrata, and has been raised as a servant.
Euthynicus, son of Lysidamus, has fallen in love with Casina and wants her to marry his armour-bearer Chalinus so that he can enjoy her favours as a concubine.