Terence - Wikipedia Jump to content Main menu Main menu move to sidebar hide Navigation Main page Contents Current events Random article About Wikipedia Contact us Contribute Help Learn to edit Community portal Recent changes Upload file Special pages Search Search Appearance Donate Create account Log in Personal tools Donate Create account Log in Contents move to sidebar hide (Top) 1 Life and career Toggle Life and career subsection 1.1 Conditions of performance 1.2 The didascaliae 1.3 The prologues 1.4 Suetonian biography 1.5 Name and ethnicity 1.6 Dates 2 Plays 3 Ancient commentary 4 Manuscripts of Terence 5 Cultural legacy 6 Editions Toggle Editions subsection 6.1 Works of Terence 6.2 Individual plays 6.3 Ancient commentary 7 See also 8 References 9 Further reading 10 External links Toggle the table of contents Terence 61 languages Aragonés العربية الدارجة مصرى Asturianu Беларуская Български Brezhoneg Català Čeština Cymraeg Dansk Deutsch Ελληνικά Esperanto Español Eesti Euskara فارسی Suomi Français Arpetan Furlan Frysk Galego עברית Hrvatski Magyar Հայերեն Bahasa Indonesia Ido Íslenska Italiano 日本語 ქართული Қазақша 한국어 Kernowek Кыргызча Latina Lingua Franca Nova Latviešu Македонски മലയാളം नेपाल भाषा Nederlands Norsk bokmål Polski Português Română Русский Sicilianu Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски Simple English Slovenčina Slovenščina Српски / srpski Svenska Türkçe Українська 中文 Edit links Article Talk English Read Edit View history Tools Tools move to sidebar hide Actions Read Edit View history General What links here Related changes Upload file Permanent link Page information Cite this page Get shortened URL Switch to legacy parser Print/export Download as PDF Printable version In other projects Wikimedia Commons Wikiquote Wikisource Wikidata item Appearance move to sidebar hide From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Roman comic playwright (c. 195/185 BC–c.159 BC This article is about the Roman playwright. For other persons named Terence, see Terence (given name). For other members of the Roman gens, see Terentia gens. Terence Terence, 9th-century illustration, possibly copied from 3rd-century original Born Publius Terentius Afer c. 195/185 BC Died c. 159? BC Occupation Playwright Language Latin Period Roman Republic Genre Fabula palliata Years active 166–160 BC Publius Terentius Afer (/təˈrɛnʃiəs, -ʃəs/; c. 195/185 – c. 159 BC), better known in English as Terence (/ˈtɛrəns/), was a playwright during the Roman Republic. He was the author of six comedies based on Greek originals by Menander or Apollodorus of Carystus. All six of Terence's plays survive complete and were originally produced between 166 and 160 BC.[1] According to ancient authors, Terence was born in Carthage and was brought to Rome as a slave, where he gained an education and his freedom; around the age of 25, Terence is said to have made a voyage to the east in search of inspiration for his plays, where he died either of disease in Greece, or by shipwreck on the return voyage. However, Terence's traditional biography is often thought to consist of speculation by ancient scholars who lived too long after Terence to have access to reliable facts about his life. Terence's plays quickly became standard school texts. He ultimately secured a place as one of the four authors taught to all grammar pupils in the Western Roman Empire, and retained a central place in the European school curriculum until the 19th century, exercising a formative influence on authors such as William Shakespeare and Molière. Life and career [edit] The manuscripts of Terence's plays contain didascaliae, or production notices, recording the dates, occasions, and personnel of early productions of the plays, and identifying the author of the Greek original. Other traditional information about the life of Terence derives from the Vita Terenti, a biography preserved in Aelius Donatus' commentary, and attributed by him to Suetonius.[2][3][4] However, it is not likely that Terence's contemporaries would have considered a dramatist important enough to write down his biography for posterity, and the narrative given by Suetonius' sources is often construed as conjecture based on the play texts and didascaliae.[5] Conditions of performance [edit] In the 2nd century BC, plays were regular features of four annual Roman festivals: the Ludi Romani (September), the Ludi Plebeii (November), the Ludi Apollinares (July), and the Ludi Megalenses (April); plays would also be staged at votive games, triumphs, and the more elaborate aristocratic funerals.[6][7] Because the Roman calendar ran some two and a half months ahead of the Sun in the 160s, Terence's plays that premiered at the Megalensia, though officially scheduled in April, would actually have premiered in late January.[8] There was no permanent theatre in Rome until the construction of the Theatre of Pompey in 55 BC, and Terence's plays would have been performed on temporary wooden stages constructed for the occasion. The limited space available would probably have accommodated an audience of less than 2,000 persons at a given performance.[9] Admission was free to the entire population, seemingly on a first-come-first-served basis, except for the reservation of seats for members of the Senate after 194 BC; descriptions of 2nd century theatre audiences refer to the presence of women, children, slaves, and the urban poor.[10][11] Mosaic from the House of the Tragic Poet depicting preparations for a Greek play In Greek New Comedy, from which the Roman comic tradition derived, actors wore masks which were conventionally associated with stock character types. Ancient authors make conflicting statements on whether Roman actors also wore masks in the time of Terence. For a time, Christian Hoffer's 1877 dissertation On the Use of Masks in Publius Terentius' Comedies won universal acceptance for the view that masks were not worn at the original performances of the plays of Terence.[12][13] However, most more recent authorities consider it highly likely that Roman actors of Terence's time did wear masks when performing this kind of play,[14][15][16] and "hard to believe"[17] or even "inconceivable"[18] that they did not. Donatus states that the actors wore masks in the original productions of the Eunuchus[19] and the Adelphoe.[20] The didascaliae [edit] According to the didascaliae, each of Terence's plays was originally produced by the acting company of Lucius Ambivius Turpio, and musical accompaniment for each of the plays was provided by a tibicen named Flaccus, a slave in the service of a certain Claudius. The traditional and generally accepted chronology of the plays established according to the didascaliae is as follows:[21][22][23][24][25] 166 BC: Andria at the Ludi Megalenses 165 BC: abortive production of Hecyra at the Ludi Megalenses 163 BC: Heauton timorumenos at the Ludi Megalenses 161 BC: Eunuchus at the Ludi Megalenses; Phormio at the Ludi Romani 160 BC: Adelphoe, and second abortive production of Hecyra, at the funeral games of Aemilius Paullus; third (and successful) production of Hecyra at the Ludi Romani The didascalia for each play also identifies its position in the corpus by chronological order. The didascaliae state that Eunuchus was the second play (facta II), and Heauton timorumenos was the third (facta III), testimony seemingly contradicted by the dates of production, as well as by Donatus' statement that the Eunuchus was "published third" (edita tertium).[26] Some scholars have explained the discrepancy by positing an unsuccessful production of Eunuchus in 165 or 164 BC, or by interpreting the numbering in reference to the order of composition rather than the order of production.[24][27] The didascalic numbering, seemingly discounting the unsuccessful productions of Hecyra, reckons it the fifth play. The didascaliae also appear to record some information about revival performances at least as late as the 140s. Patrick Tansey has argued that the didascalia to Phormio in the codex Bembinus contains garbled names of the consuls in 106 BC, which would be the last attested production of Terence before the Renaissance, though the consuls of 141 BC had similar names.[28][29] The prologues [edit] The Greek plays which provided the Roman comedians with their material typically had a prologue which either preceded the play, or interrupted the first act after one or two scenes. In the plays of Plautus, the prologue usually, but not invariably, provides exposition of the plot; Terence abandons the traditional expository function of the prologue entirely and uses it to provide a different kind of entertainment centring on replies to criticism of his work.[30][31] Terence particularly refers the "slanders" he has suffered to a certain "old" and "spiteful" poet. Because Terence says this man was the translator of Menander's Phasma and Thesaurus (Eu. 9–10), Donatus (or an earlier commentator from whom Donatus gleaned this information) was able to identify him as Luscius Lanuvinus, although no names are used in the prologues.[32] Nothing survives of Luscius' work save two lines of the Thesaurus quoted by Donatus,[33] nor is anything known about Luscius independently of Terence's prologues except that Volcacius Sedigitus rated Luscius the ninth-best Latin comic poet (and Terence the sixth-best).[34] Terence's description of Luscius as "old" may refer to a style of play-writing that Terence considered old-fashioned rather than to advanced age.[35] Terence's judgement of Luscius' work is that "by translating them well and writing them badly, he has made good Greek plays into Latin ones that aren't good" (Eu. 7–8), and that Luscius' theatrical successes were due more to the efforts of the actors than of the author. (Ph. 9–11) Suetonian biography [edit] According to Suetonius, Terence was born in Carthage. He came to Rome as a slave in the household of an otherwise unknown senator named P. Terentius Lucanus,[36] who educated him and freed him because of his talent and good looks. Terence then took the nomen "Terentius" from his patron. Possibly winning noblemen's favour by his youthful beauty, Terence became a member of the so-called Scipionic Circle.[4] Humorous engraving by John Leech of Terence reading the Andria to Caecilius When Terence offered his first play, Andria, to the aediles, they bade him first read it to Caecilius. Terence, shabbily dressed, went to the older poet's house when he was dining, and when Caecilius had heard only a few lines, he invited the young man to join him for the meal. The historicity of this meeting has been doubted on the grounds that it is improbable Terence, with his aristocratic patrons, would have been unable to dress himself decently for such an important interview; a suspiciously similar story is told about the tragedians Accius and Pacuvius; and Jerome's statement that Caecilius died the year after Ennius implies that Caecilius died two years before Andria was produced.[5][37][38][39] However, Thomas Carney argues that Jerome's dating of Caecilius' death is not above suspicion, and besides, a delay of several years between this meeting and production is entirely plausible, as Caecilius may have been impressed by the novice playwright's work even while the discussion showed Terence the need for revision.[40] R. C. Flickinger argues that the reported state of Terence's clothing shows that he had not yet become acquainted with his rich and influential patrons at the time of this meeting, and it was precisely Caecilius' death shortly thereafter, and the consequent loss of his support, which caused a two-year delay in production.[41] All six of Terence's plays pleased the people; the Eunuchus earned 8,000 nummi, the highest price that had …