Terence was born in Carthage to Libyan parents
and brought to the Roman Empire as a slave. His
family name, Afer, means “African,” which probably
reflects his origin.His owner was a Roman senator,
Terentius Lucanus, who quickly recognized
his slave’s ability and not only emancipated Terence
but also provided him with a classical Roman
education. Terence became popular among the
Roman aristocracy and was also highly respected
by such distinguished thinkers as CICERO and HORACE.
He died an early, tragic death; before he
turned 30, he was lost at sea during his journey to
Greece. It is said that Terence translated 108 of
MENANDER’s plays, all of which were lost in the
same shipwreck.
Terence wrote his first play, Andria (The Maid
from Andros), when he was only 19. The play is a
romantic comedy about a long-lost daughter’s return
to her home, a story Terence adapted from
one of Menander’s plays.
Like PLAUTUS, Terence adapted Greek plays from
the late phases of Attic comedy (farcical dramas
that evolved from fertility rites mixed with song
and rudimentary dialogue produced in the region
known as Attica during the third and fourth centuries
B.C.). However, he differed from his predecessor
in his choice of style.While Plautus wrote
for the Roman public, who were hungry for anything
vulgar, Terence delighted in subtle irony and
refined yet natural expression. In addition, Terence’s
plots far surpassed those of Plautus.
A perfectionist, Terence polished his works
until they were flawless. He wrote only six plays,
all of which survive to this day, and his skill progressed
with each completed work. First staged in
160, The Eunuch, a tale of the love exploits of two
brothers, was met with such success that it was performed
twice a day. Other plays include Adelphi
(The Brothers), in which Terence explores how the
upbringing of two brothers (one strict, the other
not) affects their behavior as adults; Hecyra (The
Mother-in-Law), in which a man discovers that he
is the one who raped his wife and got her pregnant;
and The Phormio, which is based on one of APOLLODORUS’s
plays and tells the story of how a sycophant
helps two brothers convince their father to
accept their lovers.
Terence’s refined comedies remained popular
throughout the MIDDLE AGES and the Renaissance.
The medieval playwright Hroswitha of Gandersheim
claims to have written her plays so that her
nuns would spend less time reading Terence. His
comedies also influenced the works of a number of
later authors. Molière adapted Terence’s Phormio
in one of his earliest plays, The Trickeries of Scapin
(1671), and Richard Steele adapted Terence’s Andria
in his play The Conscious Lovers (1722).
English Versions of Works by Terence
The First Comedy of Pub. Terentius, Called Andria.
Translated by Joseph Webbe. London: Scolar
Press, 1972.
Plautus and Terence: Five Comedies. Translated by
Deena Berg and Douglass Parker. Indianapolis,
Ind.: Hackett Publishing, 1999.
Terence: Eunuchus. Edited by John Barsby et al. New
York: Cambridge University Press, 1999.
Terence: The Woman of Andros, The Self-Tormentor,
The Eunuch, Vol. 1. Translated by John Barsby.
Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press,
2001.
Works about Terence
Leigh, Matthew. Comedy and the Rise of Rome. Oxford,
U.K.: Oxford University Press, 2004.
Moore, Timothy J. “Terence and Roman New Comedy”
in Greek and Roman Comedy: Translations
and Interpretations of Four Representative Plays.
Translated by George F. Franko, et. al. Edited by
Shawn O’Bryhim. Austin: University of Texas
Press, 2001.