According to the production notes, which were preserved along with the text, this was Terence’s sixth and final play, performed in 160 BC. It certainly feels like a summation of the mature side of his style, what with the interest in character and situations for their own sake and hardly any comedy at all. It’s […]
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Adelphoe (The Brothers) by Terence (160 BC)
Posted by Simon on April 15, 2022
https://astrofella.wordpress.com/2022/04/15/adelphoe-the-brothers-terence/
Eunuchus (The Eunuch) by Terence (161 BC)
‘Whatever’s happened here, it wasn’t my fault.’ (The cowardly servant Parmeno to his master Demea, page 212) In her introduction, the editor and translator of the Penguin edition, Betty Radice, observes that The Eunuch was Terence’s most popular play and is also the most Plautine of his plays, as if these are coincidental facts. When […]
Posted by Simon on April 13, 2022
https://astrofella.wordpress.com/2022/04/13/eunuchus-the-eunuch-terence/
Phormio by Terence (161 BC)
Editor and translator Betty Radice says there is no other character in surviving Roman plays quite like Phormio, the central protagonist of this play. He is an entrepreneurial trickster supreme. He offers his services to the two young ‘heroes’ for the sheer pleasure of exercising his expertise. Phormio is a comedy of intrigue as light and fast-moving […]
Posted by Simon on April 11, 2022
https://astrofella.wordpress.com/2022/04/11/phormio-terence/
Heauton Timorumenos (The Self-Tormentor) by Terence (163 BC)
‘I can’t understand it all’ (Menedemus at the climax of the plot, page 148, and he isn’t the only one) The Self-Tormentor is based on an unnamed original by the Greek playwright Menander. As usual the stage is a bare minimum, showing the front doors of two houses. In this play, however, they are not […]
Posted by Simon on April 8, 2022
https://astrofella.wordpress.com/2022/04/08/heauton-timorumenos-the-self-tormentor-terence/
Hecyra (The Mother-in-Law) by Terence (165 BC)
As usual the set consists of a street in Athens showing the front doors of two houses belonging to the two old geezers of the story, Laches and Phidippus. Rather than a tale of two young men, this story concerns only one, Pamphilus, son of Laches. He has married Philumena, the daughter of his neighbour […]
Posted by Simon on April 6, 2022
https://astrofella.wordpress.com/2022/04/06/hecyra-the-mother-in-law-terence/
Andria (The Girl from Andros) by Terence (166 BC)
‘There’s scarcely a man to be found who’ll stay faithful to a woman.’ (Mysis the servant) ‘A father shouldn’t be too hard on his children whatever their faults.’ (Chremes) The astonishingly detailed production notes, attached to the play in antiquity, tell us that Andria was first performed at the Megalensian Games in 166 BC. It […]
Posted by Simon on April 4, 2022
https://astrofella.wordpress.com/2022/04/04/andria-the-girl-from-andros-terence/
Terence
Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto* Terence’s texts Publius Terentius Afer, generally known as Terence (185 to 160 BC), died at the very young age of 25, having written just 6 plays which, however, are preserved in numerous manuscripts. So, unlike Plautus (who wrote 120 plays of which only 20 survive) a) his […]
Posted by Simon on April 1, 2022
https://astrofella.wordpress.com/2022/04/01/terence/
Roman reviews
Roman literature from Plautus to Pliny (200 BC to 100 AD) Roman writers Plautus Mostellaria (The Ghost Story) by Plautus (c.200 BC) Rudens (The Rope) by Plautus (c.200 BC) Trinummus (A Three-Dollar Day) by Plautus (c.200 BC) Amphitryo by Plautus (c.195 BC) Aulularia (The Pot of Gold) by Plautus (c.200 BC) Captivi (The Prisoners) by […]
Posted by Simon on January 27, 2023
https://astrofella.wordpress.com/2023/01/27/roman-reviews/
Complete Letters of Pliny the Younger translated by P.G. Walsh (2006)
Gaius Pliny sends greetings to his friend Septicius Clarus “On numerous occasions you have urged me to assemble and to publish such letters as I had composed with some care. I have now assembled them without maintaining chronological sequence, for I was not compiling a history, but as each happened to come to hand.” (Opening […]
Posted by Simon on January 25, 2023
https://astrofella.wordpress.com/2023/01/25/letters-pliny-the-younger-p-g-walsh/
Books & Boots 