Laudator Temporis Acti

Plautus, Rudens 615-626 (tr. Wolfgang de Melo):

Citizens of Cyrene! I implore your protection, you farmers and neighbors who are close to us here! Bring help to the helpless and bring this evil act to an evil end! Avenge wrongdoing so that the power of the wicked is not more powerful than that of the innocent, who don't want to become famous as victims of crime! Make an example of impudence, give decency its reward, make sure that one can live here by law rather than coerced by brute force! Rush here into the temple of Venus, I implore your protection again, you who are close by and can hear my shouting! Bring help to those who have entrusted their lives to Venus and the high priestess of Venus according to ancient custom! Wring the neck of injustice before it reaches you!

pro Cyrenenses populares! uostram ego imploro fidem,    615
agricolae, accolae propinqui qui estis his regionibus,
ferte opem inopiae atque exemplum pessumum pessum date.
uindicate, ne impiorum potior sit pollentia
quam innocentum, qui se scelere fieri nolunt nobilis.
statuite exemplum impudenti, date pudori praemium,    620
facite hic lege potius liceat quam ui uicto uiuere.
currite huc in Veneris fanum, uostram iterum imploro fidem,
qui prope hic adestis quique auditis clamorem meum,
ferte suppetias qui Veneri Veneriaeque antistitae
more antiquo in custodelam suom commiserunt caput,    625
praetorquete iniuriae prius collum quam ad uos peruenat.

626 peruen[i]at Guyet

Andreas Fountoulakis,"᾽Ω παρεόν[τεϛ in Herondas 8.61," Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 131 (2000) 27-28:

Wilhelm Schulze in his seminal study "Beiträge zur Wort- und Sittengeschichte II" has demonstrated⁸ that in archaic, classical and post-classical times during a violent attack in a social context the injured party ought to cry for help⁹ so as to have immediate assistance as well as witnesses who could later testify on behalf of the victim if the case was brought to court.¹⁰ The need for witnesses is stressed by Eduard Fraenkel who notes that in descriptions of such incidents the verb usually employed is the verb μαρτύρεσθαι which reflects the consideration of those, who are present at a violent incident so as to help the victim, as witnesses.<sup>11

8</sup> See W. Schulze, Beiträge zur Wort- und Sittengeschichte II, Sitzb. d. Preuss. Akad. d. Wiss. (1918), 481-511 = W. Schulze, Kleine Schriften, 2nd edn., Göttingen 1966, 160-189.

⁹ The cry could assume various forms and was usually described as βοή. See W. Schulze, op. cit., 181-187.

¹⁰ Cf. A. Lintott, Violence, Civil Strife and Revolution in the Classical City 750-330 BC, London and Canberra 1982, 18-21.

¹¹ See e.g. Lysias 3.15 οὗτοι δὲ συνεισπεσόντες ἦγον αὐτὸν βίᾳ, βοῶντα καὶ κεκραγότα καὶ μαρτυρόμενον. συνδραμόντων δὲ ἀνθρώπων πολλῶν ...; Antiphon 1.29; Aristoph., Peace 1119; Ach. 926; Cl. 1297; Birds 1031; Men., Sam. 576; Lucian, Tim. 46; E. Fraenkel (ed.), Aeschylus: Agamemnon, vol. III, Oxford 1950, 614-615, ad Aesch., Ag. 1317.

Schulze's article can be found here (examples from Roman comedy on pp. 495-497). Eduard Fraenkel, "Wilhelm Schulze," Classical Review 49.6 (December, 1935) 217-219, said about the whole series of articles (at 218):

One cannot help feeling sorry for the many classical scholars who are still unfamiliar with the 'Beiträge zur Wort- und Sittengeschichte', published first in 1918 (now reprinted, p. 148 ff.).

In its Latin form, such a cry for help was known as quiritatio. See Amy Richlin, Slave Theater in the Roman Republic: Plautus and Popular Comedy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017), pp. 181-183, who doesn't seem to mention Schulze (I don't have access to Richlin's entire book). Another example from Roman comedy is Terence, Adelphoe 155-156 (tr. John Barsby):

Fellow citizens, for goodness' sake come to the rescue of a poor innocent man. Help me! I’m defenceless!

obsecro, populares, ferte misero atque innocenti auxilium,
subvenite inopi.