By William S. Anderson

Description

This volume, intended for third- and fourth-year college and advanced high-school use, presents a selection of annotated passages in Latin from six plays by Terence: Andria, Heauton, Phormio, Hecyra, Eunuchus, and Adelphoe. The introduction discusses Terence’s enrichment of the comic genre he inherited from the Greeks and the hallmarks of his second-century BC Latin and its grammar.

Terence’s plays are not merely showcases for his superb Republican Latin style. They represent an obvious post-Plautine shift in the comedy Rome inherited from Greece. There is a new respect for the real human situations behind well-rehearsed comic plots, and questions prod the cultural norms that are depicted on stage.

Latin selections in this edition include sizeable passages from the beginnings, middles, and ends of all six of Terence’s plays, giving the experience of the general structure of his comedy. Notes illuminate Terence’s ingenuity in complicating plots, shifting sympathies, and manipulating character types. This Reader offers a memorable sample of Terence’s comic art, a unique presence in Latin literature.

William S. Anderson is emeritus Professor of Latin, University of California at Berkeley. He holds an AB and MA from Cambridge University, and BA and PhD from Yale, where he taught for 5 years before joining the faculty at Berkeley. He has published widely on Horace, Vergil, Ovid, Roman comedy, and Roman satire. His book publications include The Art of the Aeneid (1969; 2nd edition 2005), Essays on Roman Satire (1982), Barbarian Play: Plautus’ Roman Comedy (1993), Ovid's Metamorphoses 1–5 and 6–10, Text and Commentary (1972; 2nd edition 1997), Why Horace? (1998), and Approaches to Teaching Vergil’s Aeneid (with L. N. Quartarone, 2002).

Special Features

• Introduction that discusses Terence’s enrichment of the comic genre and the hallmarks of his Latin
  
• 566 lines of Latin text from Terence’s Andria, 28–139; Heauton, 175–256; Phormio, 1–12, 884–989; Hecyra, 198–280; Eunuchus, 539–614; Adelphoe, 1–25, 787–881
  
• Notes at the back
  
• Bibliography
  
• Appendix on Comic Meters in Terence
  
• Complete Vocabulary