[178] Cic. Brut. 15. 60; De Senec. 14. 50.
[179] Cf. Cicero's testimony to the purity of the style of Naevius and Plautus with his criticism on the style of Caecilius and Pacuvius. Terence, who was by birth a foreigner, was probably brought to Rome as a child.
[180] 'Puplicisne adfinis fuit an maritumis negotiis?'—Trinum. 331.
[181] Cf. the line at the end of the Prologue to the Cistellaria (Act i. Sc. 3)—
'Vt vobis victi Poeni poenas sufferant.'
The 'Didascalia' to the Stichus is one of the few preserved. From it we learn that the play was acted P. Sulpicio, C. Aurelio, Cos., i.e. 200 B.C.
[182] This is shown in some cases by reference to seats in the theatre, which were not introduced till 155 B.C. In the Prologue to the Casina it is said that only the older men present could remember the first production of that play in the lifetime of the poet. The Prologues to the Aulularia, Trinummus, and Rudens, are probably genuine, and also the speech of Auxilium in the Cistellaria.
[183] Cf. Rudens, 1249—
Spectavi ego pridem comicos ad istum modum
Sapienter dicta dicere atque is plaudier,