Heauton Timorumenos

Heauton Timorumenos (The Self-Tormentor) is a play written by Publius Terentius Afer, known in English as "Terence", a dramatist of the Roman Republic. The play has presented academics with some problems. Firstly it is not entirely clear whether Heauton Timorumenos is Terence's second or third play. More importantly, due to the scant survival of Menander's play of the same name, there is no simple way to judge how much Terence's version is translation and how much is invention. It is set in a village in the countryside of Attica.

The prologue serves to defend Terence's method of playwriting. He asks the audience to judge the play by its merits, rather than by the opinions of critics.

Menedemus, a wealthy farmer, explains to his neighbour Chremes why he is punishing himself by working hard in his fields. Menedemus explains that he had reproached his son Clinia for his having a relationship with a penniless girl, and had held up his own youth as a soldier as a virtuous contrast. Clinia, shamed, has taken Menedemus more literally than he intended and has gone to live as a soldier in the East. By coincidence, immediately after Menedemus exits, Chremes encounters his own son, Clitipho with Clinia, who has returned from the East. Clitipho tells Chremes not to tell Menedemus, as Clinia is still afraid of his father's wrath. Chremes agrees for the moment but adds that a father's duty is to be severe. Once alone, Clitipho swears he will never be a tyrant in the mould of his father.

Clinia has sent for his lover, Antiphila, who has been in mourning for the old weaving-woman who brought her up. Antiphilia arrives accompanied by Bacchis, the wealthy courtesan with whom Clitipho is in love. Clitipho is angered that his slave, Syrus, has presumed to invite his mistress to his father's house, as his father will disapprove of her. Syrus conceives a ruse for the meantime where Bacchis will pose as Clinia's mistress and Antiphila as her servant. The women arrive; Bacchis praises Antiphila for her virtue and beauty but warns that beauty and men's attention fade, and that she ought to find a man to love who will be constant for life. They meet Clinia and the young lovers are overcome with joy at the reunion.

Chremes informs Menedemus that his son is returned, but believing that Bacchis is Clinia's mistress, he warns Menedemus against welcoming him home, explaining that Clinia is now in love with a spendthrift mistress. He advises Menedemus to wait while Syrus works out a plan. When Menedemus exits, Chremes is surprised to find Clitipho embracing Bacchis, and tells him off. Syrus agrees to help Chremes, but only because it dovetails with his own scheme directed against Chremes: Syrus needs money because he had promised Bacchis money for her part in the deception. Syrus tells Chremes that Antiphila had been pawned to Bacchis by the old weaverress, and Bacchis now wants to sell her, and he advises Chremes to tell Menedemus to buy Antiphila as she is a good bargain: a captive from Caria whose friends will pay handsomely for her release. Chremes thinks it unlikely that Menedemus will go for this.

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