Suetonius's Life of Terence reports the following: born in Carthage and brought to Rome as a slave, Terence was liberally educated by his master Terentius Lucanus, who eventually manumitted him for his talent and good looks (medium height, graceful build, dark skin). A group of young Roman aristocrats--identified as Scipio Aemilianus, C. Laelius, and L. Furius Philus--befriended Terence for his eloquence (or his beauty and sexual availability, according to Porcius Licinus). Laelius and Scipio were rumored to be collaborators in the writing of the comedies; Terence never definitely squelched this rumor because he knew it pleased his friends. The approbation of the authoritative old comic master Caecilius Statius launched Terence's career, when the commissioning aediles arranged for him to assess Terence's first comedy, Andria (The Girl from Andros, 166 B.C.). Invited to dinner, the young poet, dressed in rags, began to read the play while sitting on a stool, but was soon asked to continue while now reclining at an admiring table. After 160 B.C., when he was not yet twenty-five years old (or thirty-five: the manuscripts give both numbers), Terence sailed for Greece--either for pleasure, to escape the pressure of the accusations that his plays were written by others, or to study Greek society, in order to represent it more accurately in his comedy.
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