Terence

(195 or 185-159 BC) Roman comic playwright. Terence came to Rome as a slave, probably brought from North Africa by a Roman senator who educated and eventually freed him. Little is reliably known about his life, although it seems likely that he enjoyed the friendship and patronage of prominent and sophisticated aristocrats, who encouraged and supported his work. He was also assisted by a leading actor, Lucius Ambivius Turpio who advised him and promoted his career. He based his six plays: Andria, Hecyra, Heauton timoroumenos, Eunuchus, Phormia, and Adelphi closely upon Greek originals (primarily by Menander), and attempted (not always successfully) to present such material in a manner that would appeal to a relatively less sophisticated Roman audience.

Terence was born (depending upon the choice of dates), either some ten years before or at the time of Plautus’ death. And yet, in almost every way, the surviving works of Rome’s two greatest comic playwrights display a radically different approach to their craft, and by implication, to their Roman audience as well. Unlike Plautus, Terence appears to have been fairly faithful to the plots, characterization and atmosphere of his models. The stock characters used by Plautus are more realistically drawn, with greater emphasis upon individual psychology. They are not required to be single-minded ‘types’ but instead motivated in more complex and ambiguous ways. This in turn enhances the ethical relevance of the plays. The situations text and expose the characters in a manner closer to what we now think of as verisimilitude.

This loosening of dramatic stereotype and conventional comic morality is accompanied by greater sobriety in language. There is none of the word play, indecencies, irrelevant joke, or sudden outbursts of song, characteristic of Plautine drama. There is no emphasis on punishment and torture, no extravagant flights of verbal fantasy, alliteration, assonance or invented words. Instead Terence sought to write pure and elegant Latin, which was simple, flexible and concise, but also capable of irony and with: the language spoken perhaps by the cosmopolitan circle with which he associated. Staging conventions are more realistically employed. The plot is rarely interrupted for comic asides, or for audience address, topical allusion or slapstick.

Like other Roman dramatists, Terence presented his works to holiday audiences, looking to be entertained. It is not surprising that this audience was at times distracted by the attractions of rival entertainments. The first performance of Terence’s Hecyra for example, was abandoned by the audience to view a tightrope walker and boxers; the second attempt to stage the play suffered a similar fate caused by a competing gladiatorial display. Evidently a portion at least of the spectators had little regard for the sophisticated and restrained comedies Terence offered them, or for the prologues which he employed to lecture on dramatic technique, argue with his critics, defend his craft, and plead for a fair hearing. Terence also suffered the taunts of a rival dramatist, Luscius Lanuvinus, who claimed that he had taken liberties in translating and adapting his Greek originals.