Ob florem ætatis suæ, ipsus sublatis rebus ad summam
Inopiam redactus est.
Itaque e conspectu omnium abiit in Græciam in terram ultimam.
Mortuus est in Stymphalo Arcadiæ oppido: nihil Publius
Scipio profuit, nihil ei Lælius, nihil Furius;
Tres per idem tempus qui agitabant nobiles facillime,
Eorum ille opera ne domum quidem habuit conductitiam,
Saltem ut esset, quo referret obitum domini servulus.
“While Terence joins in the pleasures of the nobles, and seeks their empty praise; while he listens with delight to the divine voice of Africanus; and thinks himself most happy to sup with Lælius and with Furius[10]; while he believes them to be his true friends; while he is frequently carried to the [11]Albanian villa; his property is spent, and he himself reduced to the greatest poverty: on which account he goes, avoiding all mankind, to the most distant parts of Greece, and dies at Stymphalus[12], a town in Arcadia: his three great friends Scipio, Lælius, and Furius, give him no assistance; nor even enable him to hire a house; that there might, at least, be a place where his slave might announce to Rome his master’s death.”
He wrote six comedies: when the first of them, the Andrian, was presented to the Ædiles[13]; he was desired to read it to Cærius[14]; he accordingly repaired to his house, and found him at supper; and, being meanly dressed, was seated on a stool near the couch of Cærius[15], where he commenced the reading of his play; but Cærius had no sooner heard the first few lines than he invited the poet to sup with him; after which, the play was read, to the great admiration of Cærius, who betowed on the author the most unbounded applause. The other five comedies met with equal commendation from the Romans, though Volcatius[16], in his enumeration of them, says,