Publius Terentius Afer (; c. 195/185 – c. 159? BC), better known in English as Terence (), was a Roman African playwright during the Roman Republic. His comedies were performed for the first time around 170–160 BC. Terentius Lucanus, a Roman senator, brought Terence to Rome as a slave, educated him and later on, impressed by his abilities, freed him. Terence abruptly died, around the age of 25, likely in Greece or on his way back to Rome, due to shipwreck or disease. He was supposedly on his way to explore and find more plots to base his comedies on. Terence's legacy is one that includes his plays being heavily used to learn to speak and write in Latin during the Middle Ages and Renaissance Period, as well as to be imitated by Shakespeare in some of his plays.