2. Works.
Comedies.—All the six plays written and exhibited at Rome by Terence are extant. They are the Andria (exhibited 166 B.C., when the poet was only eighteen years of age), the Heauton Timoroumenos, Eunuchus, Phormio, Hecyra, Adelphoe.
‘With Terence Roman literature takes a new departure. The Scipionic circle believed that the best way to create a national Latin literature was to deviate as little as possible, in spirit, form, and substance, from the works of Greek genius. The task which awaited Terence was the complete Hellenising of Roman comedy: accordingly his aim was to give a true picture of Greek life and manners in the purest Latin style. He was not a popular poet, in the sense in which Plautus was popular: he has none of the purely Roman characteristics of Plautus in sentiment, allusion, or style; none of his extravagance, and none of his vigour and originality.’—Sellar. Terence is, accordingly, in substance and form, as Caesar styles him, a dimidiatus Menander (halved Menander):
Tu quoque, tu in summis, o dimidiate Menander,
Poneris, et merito, puri sermonis amator.
A Roman only in language, but as puri sermonis amator worthy to be ranked by the side of Caesar himself and the purest Latin authors.
ALBIUS TIBULLUS, circ. 54-19 B.C.
1. Life.
TIBULLUS.
Tibullus was a Roman eques, and was probably born at Pedum, a Latin town just at the foot of the Apennines, and a few miles north of Praeneste, where his father possessed an ample estate. Much of his inherited property was lost; and it is possible that, like Vergil, Horace, and Propertius, he was a victim to the confiscations of the Triumvirs in 42 B.C. He, however, retained or recovered enough to afford him a modest competence. In 31-30 B.C. he served on the staff of his life-long friend and patron M. Valerius Messalla, the eminent general and statesman, not less distinguished in literature than in politics. The rest of his short life the poet spent on his ancestral farm at Pedum, amid the country scenes and employments congenial to his nature and habits.