ON POETS THE LIFE OF TERENCE I. PUBLIUS TERENTIUS AFER, born at Carthage, was the slave at Rome of Terentius Lucanus, a senator, who because of the young man's talent and good looks not only gave him a liberal education, but soon set him free. Some think that he was taken in war, but Fenestella shows that that could not possibly be, since Terence was born and died between the end of the second Punic war and the beginning of the third; 201-149 and even if he had been taken by the Numidians and B.C. Gaetulians, he could not have come into the hands of a Roman general, since commerce between the Italic and the African races did not begin until after the destruction of Carthage. He lived on 146 B.C. intimate terms with many men of high rank, in particular with Scipio Africanus and Gaius Laelius. It is even thought that he won the favour of these two men by his youthful beauty, but Fenestella denies this too, maintaining that he was older than either of them. Nepos, however, writes that they were all three of an age, and Porcius rouses a suspicion of too great intimacy in the following words: "Dum lasciviam nobilium et laudes fucosas petit, Dum Africani vocem divinam inhiat1 avidis auribus, Dum ad Philum 2 se cenitare et Laelium pulchrum putat, Dum in Albanum crebro rapitur 3 ob florem aetatis suae: Post sublatis rebus ad summam inopiam redactus est. Itaque e conspectu omnium abit Graeciam in terram ultimam, Mortuust Stymphali,4 Arcadiae in 5 oppido. Nil Publius 6 Scipio profuit, nil illi Laelius, nil Furius, Tres per id tempus qui agitabant nobiles facillime. Eorum ille opera ne domum quidem habuit conducticiam, Saltem ut esset quo referret obitum domini servulus." II. Scripsit comoedias sex, ex quibus primam "Andriam' cum aedilibus daret, iussus ante Caecilio7 recitare, ad cenantem cum venisset, dictus est initium quidem fabulae, quod erat contemptiore vestitu, subsellio iuxta lectulum residens legisse, post paucos vero versus invitatus ut accumberet cenasse una, dein cetera percucurrisse non sine magna Caecilii 8 admiratione. Et hanc autem et : vocem divinam inhiat, Muretus; vocē dum et inhuius et, A; the other mss. have voce divina inhiat. 2 Philum, Roth; fixu, A; the other mss. have furium. 3 The reading of Ritschl; A has dum se amari ab his credat crebro in Albanum rapitur; the other mss., dum . . . credit rapi. Stymphali, Ritschl; mortuus est in falo, A, with similar readings in the other mss.; Stymphalo, Roth. Publio, E (Ritschl). 5 in, added by Roth. 66 Though he courted the wantonness of great men and their counterfeit a praise, though with greedy ears he drank in the divine voice of Africanus, though he thought it fine to frequent the tables of Philus and Laelius, though he was often taken to the Alban villa because of his youthful charms, he later found himself stripped of his all and reduced to utmost want. So he withdrew from the sight of men to a remote part of Greece and died at Stymphalus, a town of Arcady. Naught availed him Publius Scipio, naught Laelius, naught Furius, the three wealthiest nobles of that time. Their help did not give him even a rented house, to provide at least a place where his slave might announce his master's death." II. He wrote six comedies, and when he offered the first of these, the "Andria," to the aediles, they bade him first read it to Caecilius. Having come to the poet's house when he was dining, and being meanly clad, Terence is said to have read the beginning of his play sitting on a bench near the great man's couch. But after a few lines he was invited to take his place at table, and after dining with Caecilius, he ran through the rest to his host's 7 caerio, AB; cenam, G; the other mss. have cerio. 8 caerii, A ; eorum, G; the other mss. have cerii (cerrii, cerei). a Cf. Hor. Epist. 1. 10. 26 ff.: Non qui Sidonio contendere callidus ostro Nescit Aquinatem potantia vellera fucum, Certius accipiet damnum propiusve medullis, Quam qui non poterit vero distinguere falsum. 66 facillime agitare means to live most comfortably," or, "most free from care"; cf. Ter. Adelph. 501, and the Greek peîa Sŵvres. In an opposite sense we have difficultate nummaria, Tib. xlviii. 1. quinque reliquas aequaliter populo probavit, quamvis Vulcatius dinumeratione omnium ita scribat : "Sumetur Hecyra sexta ex his fabula.” "Eunuchus" quidem bis die acta est meruitque pretium quantum nulla antea cuiusquam comoedia, id est octo milia nummorum; propterea summa quoque titulo ascribitur. Nam "Adelphorum" principium Varro etiam praefert principio Menandri. III. Non obscura fama est adiutum Terentium in scriptis a Laelio et Scipione, eamque ipse auxit numquam nisi leviter refutare 1 conatus, ut in prologo "Adelphorum": "Nam quod isti dicunt malevoli, homines nobiles Hunc adiutare assidueque una scribere ; Quod illi maledictum vehemens esse existumant, Quorum opera in bello, in otio, in negotio Videtur autem se levius defendisse, quia sciebat et Laelio et Scipioni non ingratam esse hanc opinionem ; quae tamen magis et usque ad posteriora tempora valuit. C. Memmius in oratione pro se ait : P. Africanus, qui a Terentio personam mutuatus, quae domi luserat ipse, nomine illius in scenam detulit.” 1 refutare, A; the other mss. have se tutare (tutari, F). • Text and meaning are uncertain. Dziatzko suggested submaeret (poeta) Hecyra sexta exclusa fabula. The didascalia. That is, presumably, the beginning of the play of Menander on which the Adelphoe is based. great admiration. Moreover, this play and the five others were equally pleasing to the people, although Vulcatius in enumerating them all, writes thus: "The sixth play, the Hecyra,' will not be included." a The "Eunuch was even acted twice in the same day and earned more money than any previous comedy of any writer, namely eight thousand sesterces; and for this reason the sum is included in the title-page. Indeed Varro rates the beginning of the "Adelphoe" above that of Menander.c III. It is common gossip that Scipio and Laelius aided Terence in his writings, and he himself lent colour to this by never attempting to refute it, except in a half-hearted way, as in the prologue to the "Adelphoe": "For as to what those malicious critics say, that men of rank aid your poet and constantly write in concert with him; what they regard as a grievous slander, he considers the highest praise, to please those who please you all and all the people, whose timely help everyone has used without shame in war, in leisure, in business." Now he seems to have made but a lame defence, because he knew that the report did not displease Laelius and Scipio; and it gained ground in spite of all and came down even to later times. Gaius Memmius in a speech in his own defence says: "Publius Africanus, who borrowed a mask from Terence, and put upon the stage under his name what he had written himself for his own amusement at home." Nepos says that he learned |