Terentius Junior was a Roman military officer and government official who flourished in the 1st century. He held military and bureaucratic offices that were appropriate to the knightly equites social class in Rome, and his loftiest appointment seemed to have been when he served as a procurator in the province of Gallia Narbonensis (approximately southern France). At this point, he still had much more upward mobility and potential political advancement that he could have pursued, but Terentius Junior instead desired to retire to a country estate and oversee a farming operation. Between managing his estate and entertaining guests at his home, the new Roman retiree evidently spent most of his free time voraciously consuming all of the Latin and Greek literature that he could get his hands on. He had the reputation of being quite the analytical reader, able to fully grasp, understand, and explain the pieces of literature that he had read. Guests to his house were regaled with learned conversations that had a comprehensive depth that rivaled debates held by the most prestigious scholarly circles in the city of Rome.
One guest who witnessed Terentius Junior’s well-read conversational skills firsthand was the prominent lawyer, statesman and trusted government official, Pliny the Younger (c. 61/62-113). This studious Roman aristocrat had prepared for his trip to Terentius Junior’s estate by studying up on topics such as war and farming, areas of interest that Pliny thought would be most appealing to a retired military officer living on a farm. These pre-planned topics, however, were quickly diverged by Terentius Junior into Pliny’s own favorite subject of literature. It was a conversation of great substance and intellect, leaving a lasting impression on Pliny, who went on to subsequently sing praises of Terentius Junior in letters. Writing to Caninius Rufus, Pliny wrote:
“After Terentius Junior had held the military posts open to a knight and had also served as procurator in the province of Gallia Narbonensis, his conduct being irreproachable throughout, he retired to his estates, preferring a life of peace and leisure to the offices which could have been his. I looked upon him as a good father of his household and a hard-working farmer, so when he invited me to visit him I intended to talk on the subject with which I imagined he was familiar; but when I began to do so the scholarly trend of his conversation led me back to literary topics. Everything he says is expressed in well-turned phrases in excellent Latin or Greek, and his proficiency in both languages is such that he always seems to speak best the one he happens to be using. He reads and remembers an immense amount; you would think Athens his home, not a country house” (Pliny the Younger, Letters, 7.25).
After leaving Terentius Junior’s estate, Pliny the Younger was impressed to an extent that he deemed the retired officer’s literary knowledge to be more comprehensive than many of the more professional literary scholars back in Rome. Pliny wrote, “he has increased my nervousness and made me respect these retired somewhat countrified people as much as the persons I know to be learned scholars” (Pliny the Younger, Letters, 7.25). In the future, when Pliny decided to compose literary works or speeches, he would keep Terentius’ analytical eye in mind as he wrote and edited his manuscripts.
Written by C. Keith Hansley
Picture Attribution: (Marcus Curius Dentatus and the Samnites, by Elias van Nijmegen (c. 1677 – 1755), [Public Domain] via Creative Commons and the Rijksmuseum).
Sources:
- The Letters of Pliny the Younger, translated by Betty Radice. New York: Penguin Classics, 1963, 1969.
