e,
and was first employed in the service of the actors. With the money he
had saved in this inferior station he left Rome, and set up in business;
but his speculations failed: he returned to Rome, and his necessities
obliged him to enter the service of a baker, who employed him in
turning a hand-mill. While in this degrading occupation he wrote three
plays, the sale of which to the managers of the public games enabled him
to quit his drudgery, and begin his literary career. He was then about
30 years of age (B.C. 224), and continued to write for the stage for
about 40 years. He died in B.C. 184, when he was 70 years of age. The
comedies of Plautus enjoyed unrivaled popularity among the Romans, and
continued to be represented down to the time of Diocletian. Though they
were founded upon Greek models, the characters in them act, speak, and
joke like genuine Romans, and the poet thereby secured the sympathy of
his audience more completely than Terence. It was not only with the
common people that Plautus was a favorite; educated Romans read and
admired his works down to the latest times. Cicero places his wit on a
level with that of the old Attic comedy; and St. Jerome used to console
himself with the perusal of the poet, after spending many nights in
tears on account of his past sins. The favorable impression which the
ancients entertained of the merits of Plautus has been confirmed by the
judgment of modern critics, and by the fact that several of his plays
have been imitated by many of the best modern poets. Twenty of his
comedies are extant.

P. TERENTIUS AFER, usually called TERENCE, was born at Carthage, B.C.
195. By birth or purchase he became the slave of P. Terentius, a Roman
senator, who afforded him the best education of the age, and finally
gave him his freedom. The _Andria_, which was the first play of Terence
acted (B.C. 166), was the means of introducing him to the most refined
and intellectual circles of Rome. His chief patrons were Laelius and the
younger Scipio, both of whom treated him as an equal, and are said even
to have assisted him in the composition of his plays. He died in the
36th year of his age, in B.C. 159. Six comedies are all that remain to
us. The ancient critics are unanimous in ascribing to Terence immaculate
purity and elegance of language. Although a foreigner and a freedman, he
divides with Cicero and Caesar the palm of pure Latinity.

There were two other comic poets, whose works are