There is a jest in the Latin, which it is impossible to preserve in a translation: it turns on the word malum, which was used at Rome to signify the punishment inflicted on a slave, who played his part badly on the stage: as the inferior characters in a Roman play were personated by slaves. Thus, Byrrhia means to say, I shall rehearse my part so little to my master’s satisfaction, that I am sure to be punished. The writings of Terence abound with allusions of different kinds. It is not improbable that Terence acquired a taste for dramatic writing, by frequenting the stage in his youth, before he obtained his liberty: as slaves were employed in the theatres in considerable numbers. It is remarkable that several very eminent Latin and Greek writers were originally slaves; Terence, Cæcilius, Æsop, Diocles, Rhianus, Epictetus, Tyrannion, and (as some say) Plautus, were all elevated from a servile station. A celebrated writer remarks on this subject as follows:—
“Of the politest and best writers of antiquity, several were slaves, or the immediate descendants of slaves. But all the difficulties occasioned by their low birth, mean fortune, want of friends, and defective education, were surmounted by their love of letters, and that generous spirit, which incites,
Ἀὲν ἀριστεύειν καὶ ὑπείροχον ἔμμεναι ἄλλων.
Still to be first, and rise above the rest.
Stimulos dedit æmula virtus:
Nec quemquam jam ferre potest Cæsarve priorem
Pompeiusve parem.—Lucan.
’Twas emulative virtue spurred them on;
Cæsar no longer a superior brooks,
And Pompey scorns an equal.”—Knox.