or Publius Terentius Afer, a ce- lebrated comic poet of ancient Rome, was born at Car- thage in Africa. He was slave to Terentius Lucanus the senator; who gave him his liberty on account of his wit, his good men, and great abilities. Terence, on his becoming a freed man, applied himself to the writing of comedies; in the execution of which he imi- tated Menander and the other celebrated comic poets of Greece. Cicero gives him the most pompous eulog- iums, both for the purity of his language and the per- spicuity and beauty of his compositions, which he con- siders as the rule and standard of the Latin tongue; and observes, that they were esteemed so fine and elegant, that they were thought to have been written by Scipio and Lelius, who were then the greatest personages and the most eloquent of the Roman people. Terence died while on a voyage into Greece, about the 15th year before the Christian era. There are six of his comedies extant, of which the best editions are the Elzevir one 1633, 12mo; that cum integris notis Donati, et selectis variorum, 1686, 8vo; Westerhovius's, in two vols 4to, 1726; and that of Bentley the same year, 4to. Madame Dacier has given a beautiful French version of this au- thor; and a very good English translation was publish- ed in 4to, 1768, by Mr Colman.