ke it makes it probable that he had then passed his boyhood,
and it is likely that he was born about B.C. 190. The reproach of his
adversary in _Heaut. Tim._ prol. 23,

'_repente_ ad studium hunc se adplicasse _musicum_,'

means only that he had not made himself prominent by previous
exercises in play-writing. Further in _H.T._ prol. 51-2, he describes
his opponents as _adulescentuli_,

'Exemplum statuite in me, ut adulescentuli
vobis placere studeant potius quam sibi.'

Terence was on intimate terms with P. Scipio Africanus and C. Laelius,
who were supposed to have helped him in the composition of his plays.

Sueton. _ibid._ p. 30, 'Non obscura fama est adiutum Terentium in
scriptis a Laelio et Scipione: eamque ipse auxit, numquam nisi leviter
se tutari conatus, ut in prologo Adelphorum (ll. 15-21),

"Nam quod isti dicunt malivoli, homines nobiles
hunc adiutare adsidueque una scribere,
quod illi maledictum vehemens esse existumant:
eam laudem hic ducit maxumam, quom illis placet
qui vobis univorsis et populo placent,
quorum opera in bello, in otio, in negotio
suo quisque tempore usust sine superbia."

... Sciebat Laelio et Scipioni non ingratam esse hanc opinionem, quae
tum magis et usque ad posteriora tempora valuit.'

Sueton. p. 31, also repeats a story that C. Laelius was the author of
the lines _H.T._ 723 _sqq._

Cf. also Cic. _ad Att._ vii. 3, 10, 'Terentium, cuius fabellae propter
elegantiam sermonis putabantur a C. Laelio scribi.'

Quint. x. 1, 99, 'Licet Terentii scripta ad Scipionem Africanum
referantur.'

The remark that ll. 20-1 of the above extract from the _Adelph._ could
not refer to young men like Scipio and Laelius was made even in
antiquity.

Sueton. _ibid._ p. 31, 'Santra (a grammarian of the time of Augustus)
Terentium existimat, si modo in scribendo adiutoribus indiguerit, non
tam Scipione et Laelio uti potuisse, qui tunc adulescentuli fuerint,
quam C. Sulpicio Gallo, homine docto, quo console Megalensibus ludis
initium fabularum dandarum fecerit, vel Q. Fabio Labeone et M.
Popillio, consulari utroque ac poeta. Ideo ipsum non iuvenes designare
qui se adiuvare dicantur, sed viros quorum operam et in bello et in
otio et in negotio populus sit expertus.'

In K. Dziatzko's opinion (second edition of _Phormio_, p. 10, Leipzig,
1885), the expression 'homines nobiles' points to the literary circle
of Terence, including old as well as young men, while in what follows
h