1. TERENCE (185-159)

2. Terentius Afer

3. LIFE Born in Cartage Educated by Terentius Lucanus Part of Scipio’s circle of intellectuals In 160 T. leaves Rome setting for Greece, and never comes back.

5. LIFE (deconstructed) Cartage: cf. Africanus Involvement: with aristocratic circles Time of intense Roman contact with mainland Greek civilization

6. Terentius Lucanus Senator owned then freed Terence giving him his name

7. Scipio Africanus Minor son of L. Aemilius Paulus, adopted by the older Africanus Terence is believed to have known him

8. Lucius Aemilius Paulus In 168 BCE wins the decisive battle of the Third Macedonian War Booty: 250 wagons of artifacts Greek art becomes fashionable among aristocracy

9. Cultural background 186 Worship of Bacchus suppressed 173: Epicurean philosophers banished from Rome But not without opposition

10. Plays Andria (166 BCE) Hecyra (165, 160) Heauton Timorumenos (163) Eunuchus (161) Phormio (161) Adelphi (160)

11. Pattern Young man falls in love but cannot marry until obstacles are overcome & a side-plot Focus on relationships & misunderstandings Interest in human nature; homo sum humani nil a me alienum puto.

12. “CONTAMINATION” Contaminatio has been practiced by Naevius, Plautus and Ennius (An. 15ff) — Terence’s art pleases the elite and he is proud of it (Ad. 15 ff) —Terence uses in his compositions the method of contaminatio, a practice of combining several Greek models into one Roman adaptation. Naevius, Plautus and Ennius did the same (An. 15ff)

13. Terence’s audience Luscius of Lanuvium accuses Terence of contaminatio and patronage Advocate of fidelity towards Greek sources ‘Language thin and writing slight’ T. Luscius had a comedy with a flying deer