We have little and uncertain knowledge of the life of Terentianus Maurus, author of the verse treatise De litteris, de syllabis, de metris. He himself states that he was originally from Mauritania (v. 1971: Maurus item quantos potui cognoscere Graios); this seems to be affirmed by the ethnic epithet Maurus, as he is called by Augustine (util. cred. 17: Nulla imbutus poetica disciplina Terentianum Maurum sine magistro attingere non auderes), underlining to the Manichaean Honoratus that he considered it a difficult treatise. The period in which Terentianus worked, and his profession, are more controversial and debated. Within his work, he names several poetae novelli (Annianus, Septimius Serenus, Alfius Avitus), establishing a terminus post quem midway through the second century CE; the reworking of sections of the treatise by Aphthonius, a grammarian who was probably active in the middle of the fourth century, constitutes a terminus ante quem. Several more specific dates have been hypothesised within this broad timeframe (situating him in the second century: Schultz; Werth; in the third: Keil; at the end of the third: Lachmann; Ries; between the third and fourth: Beck). While it is impossible to date him precisely, the most accredited current hypothesis — considering the treatise’s mention of the poetae novelli and its clear interest in their metrical practice, an interest which underlies the very foundations of the treatise — is that Terentianus flourished between the end of the second century and the start of the third (Teuffel-Kroll-Skutsch; Schanz-Hosius; Sallmann).

            Some information on Terentianus’ profession can also be gleaned from the praefatio to his verses. There he compares himself to an Olympic victor who, now grown old, has withdrawn from the competitions (vv. 3ff): he indicates that the treatise is a work of old age, succeeding nobler authorial tasks (vv. 51-56: Sic nostrum senium quoque, / quia iam dicere grandia / maturum ingenium negat / nec spirant animas fibrae, / angustam studii viam / et callem tenuem terit). Through the distinction between the previous grandia and the angusta studii via that he now travels, Terentianus marks two phases in his professional life. It allows us to hypothesise about earlier literary activity, probably poetry. The structure of the verses in this same treatise and the author’s evident poetic skill, as well as the work’s complex organisation, far removed from the traditional structure of an educational manual, encourage us to see Terentianus as an erudite poet who, broadly theorising his own technical skills, aimed the treatise at those who wish to undertake poetic writing (Cignolo). [Anita Di Stefano tr. C. Belanger]