The Comedies

The surviving comedies of Terence adapt Greek New Comedy for the Roman stage, concentrating on families disrupted by love affairs, concealed identities, difficult fathers, clever servants and misunderstandings that can only be resolved when hidden relationships come to light. Their plots are tightly constructed around conversation, recognition and social negotiation rather than broad spectacle.

Written for audiences of the Roman Republic in the second century BCE, the plays reveal how Roman dramatists reshaped Greek models for local performance. Terence is especially interested in generational conflict, marriage, slavery, money and reputation, using domestic comedy to test the authority that fathers and household heads assume they possess.