Publius Terentius Afer, called Terence in English, lived in the years between the second and third Punic wars (201-149 B.C.). As a young man befriended by an influential political elite, he won a reputation for his comedies in Latin based on sources from Greek New Comedy (third-century-B.C. comedy based on the lives of average citizens), produced for Roman festival occasions in the years 166-160 B.C. All six have survived. Provocation characterized Terence's dramaturgy; he challenged his older professional colleagues and the expectations of his audience. After an engagement of seven seasons in the theatrical life of Rome, he traveled to Greece and did not return. This much can be said with assurance about the life and death of Terence.
Three sources provide materials for constructing a more detailed biography: first, the commentary on Terence by the scholar Aelius Donatus (fourth century A.D.) includes Suetonius's Life of Terence, a section of his On Poets, written about A.D. 100; second, didascaliae (production records) with dates and sequence of plays, on which the production chronology is based, head the manuscripts of the plays; and third, remarkably, the prologues of the plays claim to reveal some of the production histories, making the audience seemingly privy to behind-the-scenes controversy and conspiracy.
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