Terence

John Barsby (University of Otago)

Ed. by William John Dominik, University of Otago
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.1.2: Ancient Roman Writing and Culture (Republic and Empire), -750-476.
Vol. editors: Anca Dan (École Practique de Hautes Études PSL), Martine Diepenbroek (University of Johannesburg), William John Dominik (University of Otago), Giacomo Fedeli (University of Exeter), Victoria Fendel (University of Oxford), Thomas Habinek (University of Southern California), Emily Kneebone (University of Nottingham), Elodie Paillard (University of Sydney), Sophia Papaioannou (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens), Guendalina Daniela Maria Taietti (University of Liverpool), Jula Wildberger (American University of Paris)

Dates

Born -184
Died -159
Activity -166--160

Places

Born in Ancient Rome (Republic & Empire)
Active in Ancient Rome (Republic & Empire)

Activities

Primary

Playwright / Dramatist

Resources

Terence's Works

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Plautus and Terence are the two major figures of ancient Roman comedy. They played an essential part in the development of the European comedy of manners, a genre which had been invented by the Greek dramatists of the New Comedy period (roughly 325-250 BC), notably Menander, Diphilus and Philemon. These Greek plays were lost from sight by the end of the classical era, but they served as models for Plautus and Terence, who were themselves used as models by the comic dramatists of Europe from the Renaissance onwards, including such masters as Shakespeare and Molière. Plautus, who was the more boisterous of the two Roman writers, was the more popular in Renaissance Italy and in Elizabethan England; the more refined Terence came into his own in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

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2524 words

Citation: Barsby, John. "Terence". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 06 October 2006 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=4350, accessed 22 November 2024.]