Editing Terence (section)

===Dates===
Terence's date of birth is uncertain, though Sesto Prete infers from Terence's characterisation of himself as a "new" writer (''Eu.'' 43), and of a rival poet as "old" (''Hau.'' 23), that Terence was young when he wrote his plays in the 160s.<ref>{{harvnb|Prete|1961|p=112}}</ref> Suetonius' statement that Terence died at about the age of 25 in 159 BC would imply that he was born in 184 BC, the same year as the death of [[Plautus]], and was only 18 years old when he produced his first play. The variant reading that Terence was in his 30s when he died suggests instead that he was born ten years earlier in 194, which would appear to be supported by the statement attributed to [[Fenestella]] that Terence was older than Scipio and Laelius.<ref>G. D' Anna, ''Sulla vita suetoniana di Terenzio'', RIL, 1956, pp. 31–46, 89–90.</ref> [[Jerome]]'s [[Chronicon (Jerome)|''Chronicon'']] places Terence's death in 158 BC.