W. M. Lindsay, Syntax of Plautus

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Tantus in the Deictic sense of ‘ever so much,’ e.g. Curc. 286 “nec demarchus nec comarchus nec cum tanta gloria”, has already been mentioned (22). Another of its usages may be seen in lines like

• Bacch. 1034 “sescenta tanta reddam, si vivo, tibi”,
• Bacch. 1184 “quem quidem ego ut non excruciem, alterum tantum auri non meream”,
• Trin. 530 “tribus tantis illi minus redit quam obseveris.”

Tantumst ‘enough!,’ e.g. Trin. 22, the Dramatists' equivalent of Cicero's sed haec hactenus, reveals its origin in lines like

• Merc. 282 “A. numquid amplius? B. tantumst”,
• Ter. Eun. 996 “A. numquid est aliud mali damnive quod non dixeris relicuom? B. tantum est.”

With tanto melior ‘so much the better,’ e.g. Bacch. 211, and similar phrases the Substantive Verb is normally omitted (see V. 8). Tanta (instead of tanto) figures in a curious usage of Old Latin, which has not yet been satisfactorily explained (see Havet and Leo in Archiv lat. Lexikographie 11, 579 and 12, 100):

• Rud. 521 “multo tanta miserior”,
• Stich. 339 “multo tanta plus”,
• Men. 800 “multo tanta amplius”,
• Men. 680 “bis tanta pluris”
• (cf. Cic. Verr. 3, 225 “quinquies tanta amplius”).

Whether the later use of tanti for tot is anticipated in Amph. 1057 is doubtful: “ita tanta mira in aedibus sunt facta. vae miserae mihi!”

On hic tantus, see above, 21