The ancients seem to have been least partial to the Step-mother: Volcatius says, “Sumetur Hecyra sexta ex his fabula.” The Step-mother is reckoned the last of the six. This was the only piece written by our author, in which the plot was single; and the want of a double plot, which the Romans then preferred, was, doubtless, the reason of its being postponed to Terence’s other productions. The force of custom has given authority to an erroneous disposition of these comedies, which are usually printed in the following order: The Andrian, The Eunuch, The Self-tormentor, The Brothers, The Step-mother, The Phormio. They were written and represented at Rome as follows: Year of Rome. The Andrian 587 The Step-mother 588 The Self-tormentor 590 The Eunuch 592 The Phormio 592 The Brothers 593 The original cause of the order of these plays being changed by the ancient transcribers is not known; though it is conjectured that they classed them thus, that the four plays taken from Menander might be placed together. This leads me to mention Terence’s close imitation of the Greek dramatists, amounting, in fact, to a partial translation of them; and it is necessary to bear this in mind during a perusal of his writings, lest, under the impression that this author wrote originally in _Latin_, the reader should forget that the scene is always laid in Greece; that the persons of the drama are not Romans but Greeks; and that, consequently, the manners, customs, names, and things, there mentioned, are almost uniformly Grecian.