Editing Terence (section)

===Conditions of performance===

In the 2nd Century BC, plays were regular features of four annual Roman festivals: the [[Ludi Romani]] (September), the [[Ludi Plebeii]] (November), the [[Ludi Apollinares]] (July), and the [[Megalesia|Ludi Megalenses]] (April); plays would also be staged at votive games, [[Roman triumph|triumphs]], and the more elaborate aristocratic funerals.<ref>{{harvnb|Carney|1963|p=20}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Goldberg|2013|p=1}}</ref> Because the Roman calendar ran some two and a half months ahead of the Sun in the 160s, Terence's plays that premiered at the Megalensia, though officially scheduled in April, would actually have premiered in late January.<ref>{{harvnb|Goldberg|1998|p=15}}</ref>

There was no permanent theatre in Rome until the construction of the [[Theatre of Pompey]] in 55 BC, and Terence's plays would have been performed on temporary wooden stages constructed for the occasion. The limited space available would probably have accommodated an audience of less than 2,000 persons at a given performance.<ref>{{harvnb|Goldberg|1998|p=14}}</ref> Admission was free to the entire population, seemingly on a first-come-first-served basis, except for the reservation of seats for members of the Senate after 194 BC; descriptions of 2nd Century theatre audiences refer to the presence of women, children, slaves, and the urban poor.<ref>{{harvnb|Beare|1951|pages=165–6}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Manuwald|2011|p=98}}</ref>

[[File:MAN mosaici da Pompei attori 1040619.JPG|thumb|Mosaic from the [[House of the Tragic Poet]] depicting preparations for a Greek play]]

In Greek New Comedy, from which the Roman comic tradition derived, actors wore masks which were conventionally associated with stock character types. Ancient authors make conflicting statements on whether Roman actors also wore masks in the time of Terence. For a time, Christian Hoffer's 1877 dissertation ''On the Use of Masks in Publius Terentius' Comedies'' won universal acceptance for the view that masks were not worn at the original performances of the plays of Terence.<ref>{{cite book |last=Hoffer |first=Christian |title=De personarum usu in P. Terentii comoediis |location=[[Halle (Saale)|Halle]] |year=1877 |language=la |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0Z8FdupA7-0C}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Gow |first=A. S. F. |author-link=A. S. F. Gow |title=On the Use of Masks in Roman Comedy |journal=The Journal of Roman Studies |volume=2 |year=1912 |pages=65–77 |doi=10.2307/295942 |jstor=295942}}</ref> However, most more recent authorities consider it highly likely that Roman actors of Terence's time did wear masks when performing this kind of play,<ref>{{harvnb|Beare|1951|pp=184–6}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Duckworth|1952|pp=92–4}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Barsby|2001|loc=vol. I, p. 9}}</ref> and "hard to believe"<ref>{{harvnb|Gratwick|1982|p=83}}</ref> or even "inconceivable"<ref>{{harvnb|Marshall|2006|p=126}}</ref> that they did not. Donatus states that the actors wore masks in the original productions of the ''Eunuchus''<ref name="DonatusEuPraefI6" /> and the ''Adelphoe.''<ref>{{harvnb|Wessner|1905|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=T85XAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA4 4]}}</ref>