Heauton Timorumenos

Heauton Timorumenos (Ancient Greek: Ἑαυτὸν τιμωρούμενος, Heauton timōroumenos, The Self-Tormentor)^[1] is a play written in Latin by Terence (Latin: Publius Terentius Afer), a dramatist of the Roman Republic, in 163 BC; it was translated wholly or in part from an earlier Greek play by Menander. The play concerns two neighbours, Chremes and Menedemus, whose sons Clitipho and Clinia are in love with different girls, Bacchis and Antiphila. By a series of deceptions, Chremes' wily slave Syrus dupes Chremes into paying money owed to Bacchis, who is a prostitute. The other girl, Antiphila, is discovered to be Chremes' own daughter, whom he promises in marriage to Clinia.

In his edition, A. J. Brothers calls this "the most neglected of the dramatist's six comedies". He adds: "Yet the Self-Tormentor, for all its occasional imperfections, in many ways shows Terence at his best; the plot is ingenious, complex, fast-moving, and extremely skilfully constructed, its characters are excellently drawn, and the whole is full of delightful dramatic irony. It deserves to be better known."^[2]

Heauton Timorumenos was either Terence's second play or his third; it is not clear which. In the prologue, Terence says he has altered the plot of the Greek play on which it is based by making it "double". However, due to the scant survival of Menander's play of the same name, there is no simple way to judge how much of Terence's version is translation and how much is invention.^[3]

The play is set in a village in the countryside of Attica.^[4] On the stage are two houses, one belonging to Chremes, and the other to his neighbour Menedemus. All the action takes place in the street in front of the houses.