The characters in Persa are a good example of something that occurs in comedy often, the reversal of expected roles. This is also seen in other plays we have not analyzed such as Menander's Perikeiromene and Aristophanes' Lysistrata.

In Persa the comic hero is Toxilus (Bowman in our translation). He is a slave, the usual stereotypes of which we saw in Menander's Dyskolos. His role reversal is that, despite being a slave he is also a lover, a role usually reserved for the freeborn. In this role of lover he is similar to Chaplin in fulfilling the trickster role, though he is a malevolent trickster rather than Chaplin's benevolent one. He uses his tricks to ruin the pimp, Dordalus (Dorkalot).

The Virgo (named Cherry in our translation), is another character that has a role reversal. Despite being a freeborn and dutiful daughter, she pretends to be a slut and whore avaliable for sale to Dordalus in order to accomplish Toxilus' trick. This is very similar to the character Glykera in Menander's Perikeiromene, who has a courtesan's mask and name but is in fact a freeborn girl.

The other characters in Persa are flater and more usual. Sagaristio (Einstein) is a bad slave who 'wastes' his master's money helping Toxilus. Paegnium (Toyboy) is a young male slave who is insinuated to be giving sexual favours. Sophoclidisca (Brain Muffin) is a typical slave woman. Lemniselenis (Georgia Moon) is the goal of Toxilus' love, and shares Toxilus's reversal in that she is a slave, where the usual goal of the lover is a 'perfect' girl like the Kore in Dyskolos. Saturio (Fat Jack) is a freeloader, though he also has a minor role reversal as a freeman taking Toxilus' orders.

So the primary role reversal of stereotypes in Persa is in the use of slaves in free roles (Toxilus, Lemniselenis) and of free citizens in slave roles (Virgo, Saturio). This use of reversed roles, in ancient theatre reinforced by having the actors wear 'incorrect' masks for their roles, is an excellent way to create comedy and depends entirely on the audience understanding the stereotypes to begin with. Without knowing what role a slave is supposed to take, Toxilus' reversal to take the lead lover role is not comedy.

As to whether the characters are flat, the supporting roles are obviously flat, as usual. The lead roles are more rounded, especially Saturio and Toxilus because of their role reversals, but they do not demonstrate much more roundness than that.