If a man secretly takes a harlot,
and his wife finds it out, the man goes unpunished.
But if a wife even goes out of the house
without her husband's knowledge,
the man has grounds for divorce, and she's driven out.
There ought to be the same law for husbands as for wives!
For a good wife is satisfied with one husband;
why shouldn't a man be satisfied with one woman?

This was written over 2,000 years ago and is a line from Plautus' The Merchant. Plautus was beloved of Romans until Rome became too sophisticated to relish his broad humor; and even then, "the groundlings" continued to laugh at his characters.

In another popular play, The Menaechmi, The plot of mistaken identities, possible infidelities, and ridiculous plot contrivances was such a lark that Shakespeare lifted it wholesale for his comedy, A Comedy of Errors.. The plots of Plautus were not all broad farce, however. As noted,

In the comedy of The Asses, Plautus has fun with some very low characters. A profligate son, Argyrippus, is in love with Philaenium, the daughter of the courtesan Cleareta, and his father Demaenetus wants to help him even though his wife Artemona controls the money. With his two slaves they manage to get money from the sale of asses so that Argyrippus can buy the love of Philaenium for a year; but his father insists on being allowed to spend the first night with her. His wife discovers her husband and son with the daughter in the courtesan's house, and there is hell to pay. This story of lust, greed, and deception shows the darker side of human nature, which Freud quoted as man being a wolf to his fellow man, although line 495 of Plautus more precisely means, "A man is no man, but a wolf, to a stranger." The slaves feel victimized by their captivity, the women by their need for money, and the men by their desire for women.

There is an excellent summary of Plautus' plots (from which this is quoted) here.