Terence

Publius Terentius Afer, in German Terence (* 195-184 BC in Carthage; † 159 or 158 BC in Greece), was one of the most famous comic dramatist of ancient Rome. He was next to the most important Roman poet Plautus the Archaic and became the aristocratic Scipionenkreis close. From him a total of six comedies are obtained, which were listed 166-160 BC.

Life

Terence was a slave to Rome. His master, the senator Terentius Lucanus, realized his talent, took care of a good education and set him free. Accordingly, Terence took the name of his Lord ( Publius Terentius ). The nickname Afer ( the Africans ) indicates membership of a Libyan tribe. His original name is unknown.

Terence said to have been friends with Scipio and Laelius, but both were significantly younger than he. An " intimate intercourse " with these, as it Porcius Licinius claims ( around 2nd century), is considered to be unoccupied.

Shortly after one of the last productions of his plays 160 BC, he traveled from educational purposes to Greece and died there in 159 BC, where the cause of death is not fully understood. According to Suetonius, he suffered shipwreck on his way home and died there; other versions report that he died from grief over the loss of his created works in Greece.

Works

Later works, said to have been created from 160 are not known.

Importance

Model for Terence were the comedies of the so-called new Attic comedy, especially the only partially preserved of Menander and Apollodorus of Carystus, where he partially two pieces of the same to a collaborated, as Menander " Andria " and its " Perinthia ". In the prologues of his comedies of Terence therefore often defended against the accusations of plagiarism and justified the participation of noble friends ( Adelphoe ).

In his staged by actor Ambivius Turpio comedies designed Terence bourgeois everyday life in a careful, life-like characterization of the people. Educational problems, marriage issues, and love entanglements are the subjects of his pieces worn by great humanity: " Homo sum: humani nil a me puto alienum - I am a man, nothing human is alien to me. " ( Heaut., 77).

The absence of dramatic comedy, crude, vulgar and popular joke Terence differs from the slightly older Plautus. With its scheduled, artfully landscaped plot management and its manicured conversational language comedies quickly found favor especially among the educated classes. The wider public was only gradually access to his plays. So the first performances of Hecyra had to be canceled because the Roman audience prefers boxing matches and gladiatorial games turned. Only in the year 160 they could be completely present.

Although Caesar Terence the " vis comica " ( mirth ), but knew and called him a " halved Menander ," Terence looked strong on world literature. Roswitha of Gandersheim leaned his comedies because of their (relative) freedom of movement from, leaned close to him but stylistically to. The theater practice of humanism was based on the so-called Terenzbühne, even the modern drama ( Moliere, Lessing ) received significant impetus from him. Quotations from the works of Terence were from the Middle Ages to proverbs or winged words and with the end of the 16th century to the emblems on the subject of painting of the Baroque, for example, " Sine Cerere et Baccho friget Venus".

At the beginning of the seventeenth century it was the most important poet, whose work was to learn the Latin language at the high school on the curriculum. After the Methodus nova by Wolfgang Ratke he should be taken four times in succession. Ratke itself produced along with John Kromayer to a translation of all six works, which was published in 1626, entitled Six joys game.

Expenditure

Terentius Afer, Publius: works. ( Complete edition in one volume ) from the Lat. transferred, provided with an introduction and edited by Dietrich Plane. Aufbau-Verlag Berlin and Weimar, 1st edition 1988 ( " Ancient Library ": Roman series ), ISBN 3-351-00436-2