Page "Terence" Paragraph 8

Terence wrote in a simple conversational Latin, and most students who persevere long enough to be able to read him in the vernacular find his style particularly pleasant and direct.

Aelius Donatus, Jerome's teacher, is the earliest surviving commentator on Terence's work.

Terence's popularity throughout the Middle Ages and the Renaissance is attested to by the numerous manuscripts containing part or all of his plays ; the scholar Claudia Villa has estimated that 650 manuscripts containing Terence's work date from after AD 800.

The mediaeval playwright Hroswitha of Gandersheim claims to have written her plays so that learned men had a Christian alternative to reading the pagan plays of Terence, while the reformer Martin Luther not only quoted Terence frequently to tap into his insights into all things human but also recommended his comedies for the instruction of children in school.