Lives of the Poets

The Project Gutenberg EBook The Lives Of The Caesars, by Suetonius, V14 #14 in our series by C. Suetonious Tranquillus
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Title: The Lives Of The Twelve Caesars, Volume 14.
[LIVES OF THE POETS]
Author: C. Suetonius Tranquillus
Release Date: August, 2004 [EBook #6399]?[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]?[This file was first posted on December 3, 2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
? START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIVES OF THE CAESARS, SUETONIUS, V14 ***
This eBook was produced by Tapio Riikonen?and David Widger >
THE LIVES
OF
THE TWELVE CAESARS

By
C. Suetonius Tranquillus;

To which are added,
HIS LIVES OF THE GRAMMARIANS, RHETORICIANS, AND POETS.
The Translation of
Alexander Thomson, M.D.

revised and corrected by
T.Forester, Esq., A.M.
(531)
LIVES OF THE POETS.
THE LIFE OF TERENCE.
Publius Terentius Afer, a native of Carthage, was a slave, at Rome, of the senator Terentius Lucanus, who, struck by his abilities and handsome person, gave him not only a liberal education in his youth, but his freedom when he arrived at years of maturity. Some say that he was a captive taken in war, but this, as Fenestella [925] informs us, could by no means have been the case, since both his birth and death took place in the interval between the termination of the second Punic war and the commencement of the third [926]; nor, even supposing that he had been taken prisoner by the Numidian or Getulian tribes, could he have fallen into the hands of a Roman general, as there was no commercial intercourse between the Italians and Africans until after the fall of Carthage [927]. Terence lived in great familiarity with many persons of high station, and especially with Scipio Africanus, and Caius Delius, whose favour he is even supposed to have purchased by the foulest means. But Fenestella reverses the charge, contending that Terence was older than either of them. Cornelius Nepos, however, (532) informs us that they were all of nearly equal age; and Porcias intimates a suspicion of this criminal commerce in the following passage:--
"While Terence plays the wanton with the great, and recommends himself to them by the meretricious ornaments of his person; while, with greedy ears, he drinks in the divine melody of Africanus's voice; while he thinks of being a constant guest at the table of Furius, and the handsome Laelius; while he thinks that he is fondly loved by them, and often invited