TERENCE The Brothers

New Edition - April 2000

Terence's Brothers was put on at Rome in 160 BC. when 'captive Greece was capturing her ruffian conqueror and bringing style to barnyard Latium', when Cato the Elder, still vigorous at 74, was defending 'the ways of our Roman ancestors' with pen and voice, and fourteen years before the destruction of Carthage and Corinth which marked a new epoch in Roman history. It is the latest surviving example of the 'Greek-style Comedy' (Comoedia palliata), and for sustained verve, variety, characterization, and substance it is perhaps the most accomplished of the genre as we know it, as well as a document of the blending of Greek and Roman not yet quite complete. The play deals with a perennial domestic problem ­ how fathers should relate to teenage children ­ and raises the wider question of ends and means in education. Menander's standpoint and Terence's originality remain controversial. This edition puts the issues for the general reader, and complements commentaries for the student of Latin in the long tradition going back to Donatus by concentrating on the dramatic qualities of the piece and the texture of Terence's lithe verse-diction in relation to meaning. This is a completely revised edition of that of 1987.

A.S. Gratwick is Professor of Classical Philology, at the University of St Andrews and has contributed extensively to the Cambridge History of Classical literature on early Republican Latin literature and edited Plautus Menaechmi (Cambridge 1993).

256 pp.; cl 0 85668 723 5 £35 / $59.99; pb 0 85668 724 3 £16.50 / $28

CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 1. Terence and Menander 2. The Action of Terence's Brothers 3. The Roman Context of Brothers 4. Character and Stereotype in Terence 5. The Exposition in Terence and Menander 6. The Middle of the Play: Menander, Acts II­IV 7. Micio, Demea and the Ends of the Two Plays 8. Menander's Play in Summary 9. Demea's and Terences' Last Words Abbreviations in the Apparatus criticus PARALLEL LATIN TEXT AND ENGLISH TRANSLATION NOTES TO THE TRANSLATION APPENDIXES I The quality of the transmission I Traces of the Greek original III Metre IV Prosody V Metre and presentation VI Terence's trimeter Books and articles referred to INDEXES

SOME COMMENTS BY REVIEWERS
"A scholarly and comprehensive treatment of a play that deals with the universal theme of the rearing and education of the young. Readers will welcome any addition to the understanding and appreciation of what many consider to be Terence's greatest play. Here Gratwick makes a substantial contribution both for the specialist and for the student. ... Any library with interests in drama and the history of literature should welcome this volume; recommended for all reader levels." Choice
"This is a very important work. It must be noticed, not simply as an edition for young students, but as a challenge to most people's received notions about Terence: his text, his metre, and his ways of dealing with his material. Everybody at all interested in New Comedy should acquire a copy at once. Readers ... will not need to be reminded of the vigour and freshness of his style, which is no mere grace, but the product of corresponding qualities of mind." Classical Review

"G's revised edition of the play has a comprehensive introduction which covers a very broad range of topics ... The translation is modern, natural and clear but also manages to stay close to the original ... G has produced a work with something for everyone from sixth-formers to academics. The book is as useful for Classical Studies or Classical Civilisation students as it is for Latinists or Roman Comedy specialists." JACT

RELATED BOOKS
See other books by TERENCE in the series:
The Self-Tormentor, A.J. Brothers 1988
The Mother-in-Law, S. Ireland 1990