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The Comedies of Terence

by Terence from c. 166–160 BCE

About

Publius Terentius Afer, known as Terence, wrote six comedies between 166 and 160 BCE that became the foundational texts of Roman comedy and a central part of the Western literary curriculum for over fifteen hundred years. His plays — adapted from Greek New Comedy, primarily Menander — are more refined and psychologically nuanced than Plautus, trading slapstick for sentiment and his predecessor's broad humor for a more subtle portrait of domestic life. Generations of schoolchildren read Terence to learn Latin; Shakespeare, Molière, and countless others borrowed his plots. Riley's prose translation makes the complete set accessible to modern readers. The six plays collected here cover the full range of Terentian comedy, from the gentle Andria to the more elaborate Phormio.

Translated from the original Latin.

ComedyAncientWittyPlayfulen

The Comedies of Terence

Characters
48
Words
70.1k
Scenes
170
Duration
~8 hr 45 min

Characters

#CharacterPlayerLines
1
CHREM
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442
2
DEM
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328
3
SYR
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4
DAV
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232
5
PAR
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6
PAM
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219
7
GETA
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189
8
SIM
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176

170 sections

70.1k words
#TitleWords
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Scene VII.
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Scene V.
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Scene VI.
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Scene I.
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Scene II.
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Scene III.
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Scene IV.
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Scene V.
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Scene VI.
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Scene VII.
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Scene VIII.
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Scene IX.
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Scene I.
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Scene II.
1.2k9:03

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