SOURCE: "Terence" in The Roman Stage: A Short History of Latin Drama in the Time of the Republic, revised edition, Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1964, pp. 91-112.

Beare's The Roman Stage, first published in 1950 and later revised, is a critically-acclaimed survey of Roman drama and its theatrical milieu. Here, he offers detailed examinations of The Girl from Andros and The Eunich and their Menandrian sources, concluding that a "deepening of sentiment … [is Terence's chief claim to originality. "]

We gather from Terence's own words that he was accused of weakness of style, of accepting literary help from others, of entering on his profession as dramatist without proper preparation, of stealing characters and passages from old Latin plays, of 'spoiling' or taking liberties with his Greek originals. Terence's style was indeed something new on the Roman stage. That he accepted literary help from his noble friends is perhaps unlikely, and even if...