Wisdom

That is true wisdom, to know how to alter one’s mind when occasion demands it.

-       Terence[1]

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[1] Terence was born about 195 B.C. in Carthage. He was brought to Rome as a slave by Terentius Lucanus, a Roman senator. His master freed him, and he became a Roman playwright. Terence based his comedy on the New Comedy of Menander. This style was the forerunner of the comedy of manners, used centuries later by Molière, Congreve, Sheridan, Goldsmith, and Wilde.

Production notices for his plays provide approximate dates:

·         Andria - 166 BC

·         Hecyra (The Mother-in-Law) - 165 BC

·         Heauton timoroumenos (The Self-Tormentor) - 163 BC

·         Eunuchus (The Eunuch) - 161 BC

·         Phormio - 161 BC

·         Adelphi (The Brothers) - 160 BC.

Terence’s plays were more refined than those of his contemporary, Plautus, which made him the less popular of the two. There was also controversy around Terence’s works; he was accused of contaminating the (borrowed, Greek) material and of having had assistance in the creation of his plays. Our main sources for information on Terence are the prologues to his plays, the production notices, biographical material written centuries later by Suetonius, and commentary written by Aelius Donatus, a fourth century grammarian.  Terence died either at sea or in Greece in about 159 B.C.  (Source: ancienthistory.about.com)