5.  In the prologue of the -Heauton Timorumenos- he puts the objection into the mouth of his censors:—­

-Repente ad studium hunc se applicasse musicum Amicum ingenio fretum, haud natura sua-.

And in the later prologue (594) to the -Adelphi- he says—­

-Nam quod isti dicunt malevoli, homines nobiles Eum adiutare, adsidueque una scribere; Quod illi maledictum vehemens esse existimant Eam laudem hic ducit maximam, quum illis placet Qui vobis universis et populo placent; Quorum opera in bello, in otio, in negotio, Suo quisque tempore usus est sine superbia-.

As early as the time of Cicero it was the general supposition that Laelius and Scipio Aemilianus were here meant:  the scenes were designated which were alleged to proceed from them; stories were told of the journeys of the poor poet with his genteel patrons to their estates near Rome; and it was reckoned unpardonable that they should have done nothing at all for the improvement of his financial circumstances.  But the power which creates legend is, as is well known, nowhere more potent than in the history of literature.  It is clear, and even judicious Roman critics acknowledged, that these lines could not possibly apply to Scipio who was then twenty-five years of age, and to his friend Laelius who was not much older.  Others with at least more judgment thought of the poets of quality Quintus Labeo (consul in 571) and Marcus Popillius (consul in 581), and of the learned patron of art and mathematician, Lucius Sulpicius Gallus (consul in 588); but this too is evidently mere conjecture.  That Terence was in close relations with the Scipionic house cannot, however, be doubted:  it is a significant fact, that the first exhibition of the -Adelphi-and the second of the -Hecyra- took place at the funeral games of Lucius Paullus, which were provided by his sons Scipio and Fabius.

6.  IV.  XI.  Token-Money

7.  III.  XIV.  National Comedy

8.  External circumstances also, it may be presumed, co-operated in bringing about this change.  After all the Italian communities had obtained the Roman franchise in consequence of the Social war, it was no longer allowable to transfer the scene of a comedy to any such community, and the poet had either to keep to general ground or to choose places that had fallen into ruin or were situated abroad.  Certainly this circumstance, which was taken into account even in the production of the older comedies, exercised an unfavourable effect on the national comedy.

9.  I. XV.  Masks

10.  With these names there has been associated from ancient times a series of errors.  The utter mistake of Greek reporters, that these farces were played at Rome in the Oscan language, is now with justice universally rejected; but it is, on a closer consideration, little short of impossible to bring these pieces, which are laid in the midst of Latin town and country life, into relation with the national