Heauton Timorumenos (, Heauton timōroumenos, The Self-Tormentor) is a play written in Latin by Terence (Latin: Publius Terentius Afer), a dramatist of the Roman Republic, in 163 BC; it was translated wholly or in part from an earlier Greek play by Menander. The play concerns two neighbours, Chremes and Menedemus, whose sons Clitipho and Clinia are in love with different girls, Bacchis and Antiphila. By a series of deceptions, Chremes' wily slave Syrus dupes Chremes into paying money owed to Bacchis, who is a prostitute. The other girl, Antiphila, is discovered to be Chremes' own daughter, whom he promises in marriage to Clinia. In his edition, A. J. Brothers calls this "the most neglected of the dramatist's six comedies". He adds: "Yet the Self-Tormentor, for all its occasional imperfections, in many ways shows Terence at his best; the plot is ingenious, complex, fast-moving, and extremely skilfully constructed, its characters are excellently drawn, and the whole is full of delightful dramatic irony. It deserves to be better known." The play has presented academics with a problem, it is not entirely clear whether Heauton Timorumenos is Terence's second or third play. In the prologue, Terence says he has altered the plot of the Greek play on which it is based by making it "double". However, due to the scant survival of Menander's play of the same name, there is no simple way to judge how much of Terence's version is translation and how much is invention. The play is set in a village in the countryside of Attica. On the stage are two houses, one belonging to Chremes, and the other to his neighbour Menedemus. All the action takes place in the street in front of the houses.

Characters

Plot

Prologue

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.

Act one

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 begs 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.

Act two

Clinia has sent for his lover, Antiphila, who has been in mourning for the old weaving-woman who brought her up. Antiphila 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.

Act three

Next morning, Chremes informs Menedemus that his son has 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 allow Syrus to trick him out of some money, rather than showing himself to be a soft touch by simply giving it. When Chremes returns to his house, he suggests to Syrus that he ought to find some trick to get the money out of Menedemus; it is the duty of slaves sometimes, he says, to deceive their masters. On entering the house, he 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 tells Chremes that Antiphila had been pawned to Bacchis by the old weaveress in return for a loan, and that Bacchis is willing to release her for 1000 drachmas (10 minae); 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, but Syrus assures him that the plan will still be effective even if Menedemus refuses.

Act four

Sostrata, Chremes' wife, has discovered, by way of a ring that Antiphila has given to her for safekeeping while she bathes, that Antiphila is her long-lost daughter whom she had given away to be exposed on Chremes' direction. Syrus realizes that his plan to get Menedemus to buy Antiphila cannot now work, as she is not a slave. He withdraws to consider a better plan. Clinia, on the other hand, is overjoyed because Antiphila is now revealed to be a suitable wife for him, so he will be able to abandon the deception. But Syrus says that while Clinia may tell his father the truth, he must keep up the pretense to Chremes for a while longer because Clitipho will be in trouble if Chremes discovers that Bacchis is Clitipho's mistress. When Clinia objects that Chremes will not allow him to marry his daughter while he believes Bacchis is Clinia's lover, Syrus persuades him to maintain the ruse for a day to give Syrus the time to get Bacchis's money. Syrus then tells Bacchis, who is threatening to expose him, to go to Menedemus' house where she will get paid. Syrus then tricks Chremes by telling him the truth: he tells him that Clinia has told his father that Bacchis is Clitipho's mistress and that Clinia himself wishes to marry Antiphila. Syrus advises Chremes that he should pretend to go along with this 'trick' and offer to give Clinia dowry money. But Chremes refuses to do this as it would be dishonourable. Syrus therefore persuades him that he himself should pay the money to release Antiphila, and send Clitipho to pay it to her. Chremes follows this advice and hands the money to Clitipho, to Clitipho's astonishment and delight. Meanwhile, Menedemus tells Chremes that Clinia wishes to marry Antiphila. But Chremes warns Menedemus that what Clinia said is just a trick to try to get money to pay for Bacchis. He advises Menedemus that he should pretend to go along with Clinia's statement and tell Clinia that the marriage had been agreed.

Act five

A short time later Menedemus comes and tells Chremes that he has been a fool. He saw Clitipho go into a bedroom with Bacchis and he now knows that Clinia was telling the truth. Chremes is in despair as he realises that Bacchis and all her attendants will quickly ruin him. Menedemus repeats the advice that Chremes gave to him at the start of the play: he should make his son abide by his wishes. Chremes gives his assent to the match between Clinia and Antiphila, and offers a dowry of two talents. But he asks Menedemus to help save his son by pretending that he, Chremes, is giving away all his estate to make a sufficient dowry. Clitipho is distraught when he hears this news, but his father tells him he would rather have his estate be thus disposed of than go to Bacchis by way of his heir. Syrus prompts Clitipho to ask his mother if he is really her son. The parents quarrel. Sostrata and Menedemus beg Chremes not to treat his son so harshly and Chremes relents, but on the condition that Clitipho give up Bacchis and take a different wife. Clitipho, preferring a full stomach to passion, agrees to marry a respectable girl. In the last lines of the play, Clitipho persuades Chremes to pardon Syrus for the trick he played on him.

Metrical scheme

Terence uses a variety of metres in this play. In terms of the number of lines the proportions are as follows: Since a senarius is shorter than a septenarius, in terms of the number of metrical elements, in fact only 48% of the play was unaccompanied, and the rest was sung to the sound of tibiae or reed pipes.

Prologue

The scene is set

Syrus's first deception

The girls arrive

Syrus's second deception

Sostrata recognises her daughter

Syrus thinks of a new plan

Syrus's third deception

Chremes punishes Clitipho

All is forgiven

Homo sum, humani

The most famous line in the play is line 77: "homo sum: humani nil a me alienum puto." The line was quoted twice by Cicero (Leg. 1.33 and Off. 1.29–30) and later by Seneca and many other writers. St Augustine (Epist. 155.14) recounts that he had heard that when it was spoken "whole theatres burst into applause (theatra tota ... applausisse)". In its original context it is a defensive reply by the busybody old man Chremes to his neighbour Menedemus, who says "Have you got so much free time as to concern yourself with other people's affairs which have nothing to do with you?", to which Chremes replies, "I'm human: nothing human is not my concern". However, in later centuries, it received a much wider interpretation: "Some would see in it, as Michel de Montaigne did, a man's confession of his emotional and spiritual weakness. Others, like John of Salisbury, perceive an expression of Christian charity. Others again make it a disavowal of intolerance and prudery in regard to human behaviour. Most would say that it had to do with being 'humane' in some very positive sense of this much used word..." Among English authors who quoted it was Henry Fielding in Tom Jones (1749, Book XV, ch. VIII) who applies the quotation to his hero: “He was one who could truly say with him in Terence, Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto” A shortened version of the line, HVMANI NIHIL ALIENVM, is used as the motto of various institutions, such as the Law Society of Scotland and the Australian Academy of the Humanities.

Nam deteriores omnes

Another, less well known, quotation from the play is referenced in George Eliot's epigraph to Chapter 25 of her novel Daniel Deronda: "nam deteriores omnes sumus licentiae (line 483)" "For all of us are worse for licence" i.e. "if we are given free rein to do as we like".