P. Terentius Afer was born in Africa, and was brought in early life to Rome, where he was a slave of P. Terentius Lucanus, by whom he was educated and subsequently manumitted.
Sueton. vit. Ter. p. 26 R., ‘P. Terentius Afer, Karthagine natus, serviit Romae Terentio Lucano senatori, a quo ob ingenium et formam non institutus modo liberaliter, sed et mature manu missus est. Quidam captum esse existumant: quod fieri nullo modo potuisse Fenestella docet, cum inter finem secundi Punici belli et initium tertii et natus sit et mortuus.’
Terence’s cognomen probably shows that he belonged to one of the African peoples subdued by Carthage. It may be taken as certain that he was not of Punic birth, and that he was brought to Rome in the ordinary course of the slave trade.
The date of Terence’s birth is not accurately known. Sueton. ibid. p. 32, ‘Nondum quintum atque vicesimum ingressus annum ... egressus urbe est neque amplius rediit,’ which refers to his voyage to Greece in B.C. 160, would make the year of his birth to be B.C. 185. This, however, is an improbable assumption, which rests on the fact that Roman scholars attributed to him the age of his intimate friend, P. Scipio Africanus the younger. Thus Sueton. ibid. p. 27 (of Terence, Scipio, Laelius), says, ‘quamvis et Nepos aequales omnes fuisse tradat’; with which contrast ibid. ‘Fenestella ... contendens utroque maiorem natu fuisse.’ Terence must have been some years older, as his first piece, the Andria, was produced B.C. 166. A successful piece like it makes it probable that he had then passed his boyhood, and it is likely that he was born about B.C. 190. The reproach of his adversary in Heaut. Tim. prol. 23,
‘repente ad studium hunc se adplicasse musicum,’
means only that he had not made himself prominent by previous exercises in play-writing. Further in H.T. prol. 51-2, he describes his opponents as adulescentuli,
‘Exemplum statuite in me, ut adulescentuli
vobis placere studeant potius quam sibi.’
Terence was on intimate terms with P. Scipio Africanus and C. Laelius, who were supposed to have helped him in the composition of his plays.
Sueton. ibid. p. 30, ‘Non obscura fama est adiutum Terentium in scriptis a Laelio et Scipione: eamque ipse auxit, numquam nisi leviter se tutari conatus, ut in prologo Adelphorum (ll. 15-21),
“Nam quod isti dicunt malivoli, homines nobiles
hunc adiutare adsidueque una scribere,
quod illi maledictum vehemens esse existumant:
eam laudem hic ducit maxumam, quom illis placet
qui vobis univorsis et populo placent,
quorum opera in bello, in otio, in negotio
suo quisque tempore usust sine superbia.”