In so far it is perhaps justifiable to date a new era in Roman literature--the real essence of which lay not in the development of Latin poetry, but in the development of the Latin language--from the comedies of Terence as the first artistically pure imitation of Hellenic works of art.

The modern comedy made its way amidst the most determined literary warfare.
The Plautine style of composing had taken root among the Roman bourgeoisie; the comedies of Terence encountered the liveliest opposition from the public, which found their "insipid language," their "feeble style," intolerable.

The, apparently, pretty sensitive poet replied in his prologues--which properly were not intended for any such purpose--with counter-criticisms full of defensive and offensive polemics; and appealed from the multitude, which had twice run off from his -Hecyra- to witness a band of gladiators and rope-dancers, to the cultivated circles of the genteel world.

He declared that he only aspired to the approval of the "good"; in which doubtless there was not wanting a hint, that it was not at all seemly to undervalue works of art which had obtained the approval of the "few." He acquiesced in or even favoured the report, that persons of quality aided him in composing with their counsel or even with their cooperation.( 5) In reality he carried his point; even in literature the oligarchy prevailed, and the artistic comedy of the exclusives supplanted the comedy of the people: we find that about 620 the pieces of Plautus disappeared from the set of stock plays.

This is the more significant, because after the early death of Terence no man of conspicuous talent at all further occupied this field.