Aspis

Aspis (‘shield’), Greek comedy by Menander, a substantial part of which has been recovered on a papyrus.

One of three brothers has died, leaving a son and daughter. The son Cleostratus goes off to the wars, leaving his sister under the protection of their uncle Chaerestratus. Cleostratus is reported dead, leaving his property to his sister. By Greek law the closest male relative of an heiress (within the permitted degree) was entitled to marry her. Chaerestratus was already planning to marry the girl to his stepson, but now his brother Smicrines tries to marry her for her money. A plot is laid to trick Smicrines into offering marriage to Chaerestratus' daughter instead, but Cleostratus, alive after all, returns. The play probably ended with the marriages of the cousins and the discomfiture of Smicrines.

The play is enlivened by the character of the resourceful slave Daos who engineers the deception and must be typical of many such slaves in other of Menander's plays, but now known chiefly from Roman comedy.