Aspis (Menander)  Aspis (, translated as "The Shield", is a comedy by Menander (342/41 – 292/91 BC) that is only partially preserved on papyrus. Of a total of ca. 870 lines, about 420 lines survive, including almost all of the first and second act and the beginning of the third act. It is unknown when and at which festival the play was first performed. Set in Athens, the play is a comedy of intrigue that revolves around a greedy old miser, Smikrines, and two decent but impoverished young people, the mercenary soldier Kleostratos and his sister. Kleostratos' loyal slave, Daos, returns from war in Asia Minor with his master's battered shield; he believes that Kleostratos has fallen in battle (in a delayed prologue, the goddess Chance soon assures the audience that Daos is mistaken). The soldier's greedy uncle, Smikrines, wants to get his hands on the soldier's rich booty that Daos brought back as well. So he declares that he will marry the soldier's heiress, his sister. Smikrines invokes an Athenian law that obliges the oldest male relative to marry an orphaned heiress (epikleros). This is devastating news to Chaireas, who is in love with the girl and was supposed to marry her, and his stepfather, Chairestratos, who happens to be Smikrines' younger brother. A clever plan by Daos saves the situation. Daos stages a false funeral for Chairestratos, claiming that he died of a broken heart and left his daughter heiress of his huge fortune. Smikrines then reconsiders, betrothes Kleostratos' sister to Chaireas, and wants to marry his other niece instead. At this point, the soldier Kleostratos, who had only been taken captive, returns. As a result, there are two engagements: Kleostratos is betrothed to Chairestratos' daughter, and Chaireas to Kleostratos' sister. The end is lost, but would have included the final defeat and humiliation of the greedy Smikrines. The Solonic law regarding orphaned heiresses (epikleroi) was a popular topic in Greek and Roman New Comedy. Apart from Menander's "Aspis", the law also plays a role in Terence's "Phormio" and "Adelphoe", and there were numerous other plays with titles such as "Epikleros" ("Heiress"), including two by Menander, or "Epidikazomenos" ("The man to whom an estate and its heiress are adjudged").