(Publius Terentius Afer). Born circa 195 B.C.; died 159 B.C. Roman dramatist.
Terence was born in Carthage. Between 166 and 160 B.C., he wrote six plays, using the plots and masks of the Greek New Comedy: The Lady of Andros, The Self-tormentor, The Eunuch, and The Brothers were adaptations of plays by Menander, and Phormio and The Mother-in-law were adaptations of plays by Apollodorus of Carystus. In these plays Terence departed from the convention of mixing Greek and Roman elements and from the crude comedy and buffoonery typified by Plautus. Despite the use of the device of contaminatio (adding a character from a second Greek original), the plots in Terence’s comedies develop consistently; his characters, depicted with psychological subtlety, contrast with the accepted pattern. Terence separated the prologue from the plot and used it to make sharp comments on current events and to engage in polemics with literary opponents. Terence had an enormous influence on the togata, the Roman comedy of the mid-second century B.C. His influence can be seen in Moliere’s plays. A. N. Ostrovskii translated the Mother-in-law.
K. P. POLONSKAIA