Tenty̆ra (plural) and Tentyris, a small town of Egypt, on the Nile, whose inhabitants were at enmity with the crocodiles, and made war against those who paid them adoration. Seneca, Quæstiones Naturales, bk. 4, ch. 2.—Strabo, bk. 17.—Juvenal, satire 15.—Pliny, bk. 25, ch. 8.
Tenty̆ra (melius Tempyra), a place of Thrace, opposite Samothrace. Ovid, Tristia, bk. 1, poem 9, li. 21.
Teos, or Teios, now Sigagik, a maritime town on the coast of Ionia in Asia Minor, opposite Samos. It was one of the 12 cities of the Ionian confederacy, and gave birth to Anacreon and Hecatæus, who is by some deemed a native of Miletus. According to Pliny, Teos was an island. Augustus repaired Teos, whence he is often called the founder of it on ancient medals. Strabo, bk. 14.—Mela, bk. 1, ch. 17.—Pausanias, bk. 7, ch. 3.—Ælian, Varia Historia, bk. 8, ch. 5.—Horace, bk. 1, ode 17, li. 18.—Pliny, bk. 5, ch. 31.
Terēdon, a town on the Arabian gulf. Dionysius Periegeta, li. 982.
Terentia, the wife of Cicero. She became mother of Marcus Cicero, and of a daughter called Tulliola. Cicero repudiated her because she had been faithless to his bed, when he was banished in Asia. Terentia married Sallust, Cicero’s enemy, and afterwards Messala Corvinus. She lived to her 103rd, or, according to Pliny, to her 117th year. Plutarch, Cicero.—Valerius Maximus, bk. 8, ch. 13.—Cicero, Letters to Atticus, bk. 11, ltr. 16, &c.——The wife of Scipio Africanus.——The wife of Mecænas, with whom it was said that Augustus carried on an intrigue.
Terentia lex, called also Cassia, frumentaria, by Marcus Terentius Varro Lucullus and Caius Cassius, A.U.C. 680. It ordered that the same price should be given for all corn bought in the provinces, to hinder the exactions of the questors.——Another, by Terentius the tribune, A.U.C. 291, to elect five persons to define the power of the consuls, lest they should abuse the public confidence, by violence or rapine.
Terentiānus, a Roman to whom Longinus dedicated his treatise on the sublime.——Maurus, a writer who flourished A.D. 240. The last edition of his treatise de literis, syllabis, et metris Horatii, is by Mycillus, Frankfurt, 8vo, 1584. Martial, bk. 1, ltr. 70.
Terentius Publius, a native of Carthage in Africa, celebrated for the comedies which he wrote. He was sold as a slave to Terentius Lucanus, a Roman senator, who educated him with great care, and manumitted him for the brilliancy of his genius. He bore the name of his master and benefactor, and was called Terentius. He applied himself to the study of Greek comedy with uncommon assiduity, and merited the friendship and patronage of the learned and powerful. Scipio the elder Africanus, and his friend Lælius, have been suspected, on account of their intimacy, of assisting the poet in the composition of his comedies; and the fine language, the pure expressions, and delicate sentiments with which the plays of Terence abound, seem, perhaps, to favour the supposition. Terence was in the 25th year of his age when his first play appeared on the Roman stage. All his compositions were received with great applause, but when the words
Homo sum, humani nil a me alienum puto,
were repeated, the plaudits were reiterated, and the audience, though composed of foreigners, conquered nations, allies, and citizens of Rome, were unanimous in applauding the poet, who spoke with such elegance and simplicity the language of nature, and supported the native independence of man. The talents of Terence were employed rather in translation than in the effusions of originality. It is said that he translated 108 of the comedies of the poet Menander, six of which only are extant, his Andria, Eunuch, Heautontimorumenos, Adelphi, Phormio, and Hecyra. Terence is admired for the purity of his language, and the artless elegance and simplicity of his diction, and for a continual delicacy of sentiment. There is more originality in Plautus, more vivacity in the intrigues, and more surprise in the catastrophes of his plays; but Terence will ever be admired for his taste, his expressions, and his faithful pictures of nature and manners, and the becoming dignity of his several characters. Quintilian, who candidly acknowledges the deficiencies of the Roman comedy, declares that Terence was the most elegant and refined of all the comedians whose writings appeared on the stage. The time and the manner of his death are unknown. He left Rome in the 35th year of his age, and never after appeared there. Some suppose that he was drowned in a storm as he returned from Greece, about 159 years before Christ, though others imagine he died in Arcadia or Leucadia, and that his death was accelerated by the loss of his property, and particularly of his plays which perished in a shipwreck. The best editions of Terence are those of Westerhovius, 2 vols., 4to, Amsterdam, 1726; of Edinburgh, 12mo, 1758; of Cambridge, 4to, 1723; Hawkey’s, 12mo, Dublin, 1745; and that of Zeunius, 8vo, Lipscomb, 1774. Cicero, Letters to Atticus, bk. 7, ltr. 3.—Paterculus, bk. 1, ch. 17.—Quintilian, bk. 10, ch. 1.—Horace, bk. 2, ltr. 1, li. 59.——Culeo, a Roman senator, taken by the Carthaginians, and redeemed by Africanus. When Africanus triumphed, Culeo followed his chariot with a pileus on his head. He was some time after appointed judge between his deliverer and the people of Asia, and had the meanness to condemn him and his brother Asiaticus, though both innocent. Livy, bk. 30, ch. 45.——A tribune who wished the number of the citizens of Rome to be increased.——Evocatus, a man who, as it was supposed, murdered Galba. Tacitus, Histories, bk. 1, ch. 41.——Lentinus, a Roman knight condemned for perjury.——Varro, a writer. See: [Varro].——A consul with Æmilius Paulus at the battle of Cannæ. He was the son of a butcher, and had followed for some time the profession of his father. He placed himself totally in the power of Hannibal, by making an improper disposition of his army. After he had been defeated, and his colleague slain, he retired to Canusium, with the remains of his slaughtered countrymen, and sent word to the Roman senate of his defeat. He received the thanks of this venerable body, because he had engaged the enemy, however improperly, and not despaired of the affairs of the republic. He was offered the dictatorship, which he declined. Plutarch.—Livy, bk. 22, &c.——An ambassador sent to Philip king of Macedonia.——Massaliora, an edile of the people, &c.——Marcus, a friend of Sejanus, accused before the senate for his intimacy with that discarded favourite. He made a noble defence, and was acquitted. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 6.