Produced by Tapio Riikonen and David Widger
By
C. Suetonius Tranquillus;
To which are added,
The Translation of
Alexander Thomson, M.D.
revised and corrected by
T.Forester, Esq., A.M.
(531)
Terence
Juvenal
Persius
Horace
Lucan
Pliny
Publius Terentius Afer, a native of Carthage, was a slave, at Rome, ofthe senator Terentius Lucanus, who, struck by his abilities and handsomeperson, gave him not only a liberal education in his youth, but hisfreedom when he arrived at years of maturity. Some say that he was acaptive taken in war, but this, as Fenestella [925] informs us, could byno means have been the case, since both his birth and death took place inthe interval between the termination of the second Punic war and thecommencement of the third [926]; nor, even supposing that he had beentaken prisoner by the Numidian or Getulian tribes, could he have falleninto the hands of a Roman general, as there was no commercial intercoursebetween the Italians and Africans until after the fall of Carthage [927].Terence lived in great familiarity with many persons of high station, andespecially with Scipio Africanus, and Caius Delius, whose favour he iseven supposed to have purchased by the foulest means. But Fenestellareverses the charge, contending that Terence was older than either ofthem. Cornelius Nepos, however, (532) informs us that they were all ofnearly equal age; and Porcias intimates a suspicion of this criminalcommerce in the following passage:—
"While Terence plays the wanton with the great, and recommends himself tothem by the meretricious ornaments of his person; while, with greedyears, he drinks in the divine melody of Africanus's voice; while hethinks of being a constant guest at the table of Furius, and the handsomeLaelius; while he thinks that he is fondly loved by them, and ofteninvited to Albanum for his youthful beauty, he finds himself stripped ofhis property, and reduced to the lowest state of indigence. Then,withdrawing from the world, he betook himself to Greece, where he met hisend, dying at Strymphalos, a town in Arcadia. What availed him thefriendship of Scipio, of Laelius, or of Furius, three of the mostaffluent nobles of that age? They did not even minister to hisnecessities so much as to provide him a hired house, to which his slavemight return with the intelligence of his master's death."
He wrote comedies, the earliest of which, The Andria, having to beperformed at the public spectacles given by the aediles [928], he wascommanded to read it first before Caecilius [929]. Having beenintroduced while Caecilius was at supper, and being meanly dressed, he isreported to have read the beginning of the play seated on a low stoolnear the great man's couch. But after reciting a few verses, he wasinvited to take his place at table, and, having supped with his host,went through the rest to his great delight. This play and fiv