SOURCE: An introduction to Adelphoe by Terence, edited by R. H. Martin, Cambridge University Press, 1976, pp. 1-41.

Below, Martin supplies a summary of the development of Roman comedy to Terence's time, and then goes on to discuss the sources, themes, characters, and style of the The Brothers.

Although there is evidence of dramatic entertainment in Rome and other Italian towns from an early date, formal literary drama came to Rome only in the third century B.C., when in September of the year 240 at the ludi Romani there was performed a Latin play, translated from the Greek by Livius Andronicus, a semigraecus from Tarentum. Rome had just brought the First Punic War to a successful conclusion, and the ludi Romani of that year were celebrated on a grander scale to mark the nation's pride and joy at that success. The inclusion of a dramatic entertainment in the games...