A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

TERENTIA. TERENTIA GENS. 995
B. C. 351. The Sidonians, however, resolving not divorced Terentia in order to marry a young wife;
to fall into the power of the king, set the town on but this was not the real reason. He hoped to pay
fire and perished in the flames. (Diod. xvi. 41- off his debts with the fortune of Publilia. [PuB45.) LILIA.] Terentia had a large property of her own,
TERAMBUS (TEpalseos), a son of Euseirus and Cicero now had to repay her dos, which he
and Eidothea. Once he was tending his flocks on found great difficulty in doing, and it seems that
Mount Othrys in Melis, under the protection of Terentia never got it back. She was not paid at
the nymphs whom he delighted with his songs, for all events in the summer of B. c. 44 (Cic. (ad Alt.
he was a distinguished musician, and played both xvi. 15). Terentia could not have been less than
the syrinx and the lyre. Pan advised him to quit 50 at the time of her divorce, and therefore it is
Mount Othrys, because a very severe winter was not probable that she married again. It is related,
coming on. Terambus, however, did not follow indeed, by Jerome (in Jovin. i. p. 52, ed. Basil.),
the advice, and went so far in his insolence as to that she married Sallust the historian, and the
revile even the nymphs, saying that they were not enemy of Cicero, and subsequently Messala Cordaughters of Zeus. The predicted cold at length vinus; but these marriages are not mentioned by
came, and, while all his flocks perished, Terambus Plutarch or any other writer, and may therefore be
himself was metamorphosed by the nymphs into a rejected. Some modern writers speak even of a
beetle called Kepap/gv. (Anton. Lib. 22.) Ovid fourth marriage; since Dion Cassius (lvii. 15) says
(Mlet. vii. 353) mentions one Cerambus on Mount that Vibius Rufus, in: the reign of Tiberius, marOthrys, who escaped from the Deucalionian flood ried Cicero's widow; but if this is a fact, it must
by means of wings which he had received from the refer to Publilia and not to Terentia. Terentia is
nymphs. [L. S.] said to have attained the age of one hundred and
TERE'NTIA. 1. The wife of M. Cicero. Her three. (Plin. H. N. vii. 48. s. 49; Val. Max. viii.
parentage is unknown. Her mother must have 13. ~ 6.) The life of Terentia is given at length
married twice, for she had a half-sister of the by Drumann. (Geschichte Roms, vol. vi. pp. 685
name of Fabia, who was a Vestal Virgin. This -694.)
Fabia was charged with having had sexual inter-. 2. Also called TERENTILLA, the wife of Maecourse with Catiline, who was brought to trial for cenas. Dion Cassius (liv. 3) speaks of her as a
the crime in B. C. 73, but was acquitted. (Ascon. sister of Murena and of Proculeits. The full name
in Cic. Corn. p. 93, ed. Orelli; Plut. Cat. min. 19; of this Murena was A. Terentius Varro Murena:
Sall. Cat. 15; Drumann, Geschiclte Roms, vol. v. he was perhaps the son of L. Licinius Murena,
p. 392.) The year of Terentia's marriage with who was consul B. C. 62, and was adopted by A.
Cicero is not known, but as their daughter Tullia Terentius Varro. Murena would thus have been
was married in B. C. 63, the marriage of her parents the adopted brother of Terentia: Proculeius was
may probably be placed in 80 or 79. Terentia was probably only the cousin of Murenla. [SeeVol.III.
a woman of sound sense and great resolution; and p. 540, b.]
her firmness of character was of no small service to We know nothing of the early history of Teher weak and vacillating husband in some im- rentia, nor the time of her marriage with Maecenas.
portant periods of his life. On his banishment in She was a very beautiful woman, and as licentious
B. C. 58, Tullia by her letters endeavoured to keep as most of the Roman ladies of her age. She was
up Cicero's fainting spirits, though to little pur- one of the favourite mistresses of Augustus; and
pose, and she vigorously exerted herself on his Dion Cassius relates (liv. 19) that there was a
behalf among his friends in Italy. Cicero, how- report at Rome that the emperor visited Gaul in
ever, appears to have taken offence at something B. C. 16, simply to enjoy the society of Terentia
she had done during his exile, for on his return unmolested by the lampoons which it gave occasion
to Italy in the following year he writes to Atticus to at Rome. The intrigue between Augustus and
praising the sympathy which his brother and his Terentia is said by Dion Cassius to have disturbed
daughter had shown him, without mentioning Te- the good understanding which subsisted between
rentia (ad Aft. iv. 2). During the civil war, Cicero the emperor and his minister, and finally to have
bitterly complained that his wife did not furnish occasioned the disgrace of the latter. Maecenas
him and Tullia with money; but on his departure however had not much right to complain of the
for Greece, he had left his affairs in the greatest conduct of his wife, for his own infidelities were
confusion, and Terentia appears to have done the notorious. But notwithstanding his numerous
best she could under the circumstances. Cicero, amours, Maecenas continued to his death deeply
however, threw all the blame upon his wife, and in love with his fair wife. Their quarrels, which
attributed his embarrassments to her extravagance were of frequent occurrence, mainly in consequence
and want of management. He had returned to of the morose and haughty temper of Terentia,
Brundisium after the defeat of Pompey, ruined in rarely lasted long, for the natural uxoriousness of
his prospects, and fearing that he might not obtain Maecenas constantly prompted him to seek a reconforgiveness from Caesar. He was thus disposed to ciliation; so that Seneca says (Ep. 114) he marlook at every thing in the worst light. When ried a wife a thousand times, though he never had
Terentia wrote to him proposing to join him at more than one. Once indeed they were divorced,
Brundisium, he replied in a few lines telling her but Maecenas tempted her back by presents (Dig.
not to come, as the journey was long and the roads 24. tit. 1. s. 64). Her influence over him was so
unsafe, and, she moreover could be of no use to great, that in spite of his cautious temper, he was
him (Cic. ad Fam. xiv. 12). In the following year, on one occasion weak enough to confide to her an
B. C. 46, Cicero divorced Terentia, and shortly important state secret respecting the conspiracy of
afterwards married Publilia, a young girl of whose her brother Murena. (Dion Cass. liv. 3, 19, lv. 7;
property he had the management. This marriage Suet. Aug. 66, 69; Frandsen, C. O(ilnius MAaecenas,
occasioned great scandal at Rome. Antonius and pp. 132 —136.)
other enemies of Cicero maintained that he had TERE'NTIA GENS, plebeian. The name was
3s 2