"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. bfacillime 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 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). a 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 b 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 Nepos auctore certo comperisse se ait, C. Laelium quondam in Puteolano Kal. Martiis admonitum ab uxore temperius ut discumberet petisse ab ea ne interpellaret,1 seroque tandem ingressum triclinium dixisse, non saepe in scribendo magis sibi successisse ; deinde rogatum ut scripta illa proferret pronuntiasse versus qui sunt in "Heautontimorumeno": "Satis pol proterve me Syri promissa huc induxerunt." IV. Santra Terentium existimat, si modo in scribendo adiutoribus indiguerit, non tam Scipione et Laelio uti potuisse, qui tunc adulescentuli fuerunt, quam C. Sulpicio Gallo, homine docto et cuius consularibus 2 ludis initium fabularum dandarum fecerit, vel Q. Fabio Labeone et M. Popillio, consulari utroque ac poeta ; ideo ipsum non iuvenes designare qui se adiuvare dicantur, sed viros " quorum operam et in bello et in otio et in negotio" populus sit expertus. 3 4 Post editas comoedias nondum quintum atque vicesimum egressus annum, causa vitandae opinionis qua videbatur aliena pro suis edere, seu percipiendi Graecorum instituta moresque, quos non perinde exprimeret in scriptis, egressus est neque amplius rediit. De morte eius Vulcatius sic tradit : 5 1 interpellaret, A; interpolleretur, F; the other mss. have interpellaretur. 2 et cuius consularibus, A ; et consularibus, D; the other mss. have et qui consularibus; quo consule Megalensibus, Ritschl. 3 dicantur, Roth; dicuntur, A; designarentur, D; the other mss. have dicerentur. 4 annum animi, A ; animi causa seu, Dz. (aut, Bährens.). from a trustworthy source that once at his villa at Puteoli Gaius Laelius was urged by his wife to come to dinner at an earlier hour than common on the Kalends of March," but begged her not to interrupt him. When he at last entered the diningroom at a late hour, he said that he had seldom written more to his own satisfaction; and on being asked to read what he had written, he declaimed the lines of the "Heautontimorumenos," beginning: Impudently enough, by Heaven, has Syrus lured me here by promises.' 66 IV. Santra thinks that if Terence had really needed help in his writing, he would not have been so likely to resort to Scipio and Laelius, who were then mere youths, as to Gaius Sulpicius Gallus, a scholarly man, at whose consular games he brought out his first play, or to Quintus Fabius Labeo and Marcus Popillius, both of whom were ex-consuls and poets; and that it was for that reason that he spoke, not of young men" who were said to help him, but “men whose mettle the people had tried in war, in leisure, in business." 66 After publishing these comedies before he had passed his twenty-fifth year, either to escape from the gossip about publishing the work of others as his own, or else to become versed in Greek manners and customs, which he felt that he had not been wholly successful in depicting in his plays, he left Rome and never returned. Of his death Vulcatius writes in these words: 5 egressus urbe, Muretus; urbem, St. a See note c on Vesp. xix. 1. |