The Prologues of Terence

In the tradition going back to New Comedy, the prologue as generally conceived as a place for exposition, for information necessary for the understanding of the plot. It not only gave the antecedent facts of the action but also anticipated a part of the development and hinted at the resolution. This gave the audience a panorama, making it more attentive to the development of the action and capable of appreciating those ironic effects that arose little by little from the situation on the stage - double meanings, mistaken perspectives, and so on. Terence rejects this informing function of the prologue, even though to do so leads to some obscurities in the movement of the plot. Instead, he uses his prologues as declarations of the author's personal stance: he explains the relation to the Greek originals he has used and responds to criticisms by his opponents on questions of his poetics. It is evident that this new type of prologue presupposes an audience that is more advanced and attuned to problems of taste and technique, an audience that is certainly smaller and more select.

This use of the prologue brings Terence closer to such figures as Ennius, Accius, Lucilius, who in their practice of literature always give more room to moments of critical and poetic reflection. Not by chance does Terence tend to emphasize his distance from the "old" literary generation, which includes Plautus.

(Conte, Latin Literature, pp. 62-3)