Tra fides e meritum: l'amore in Terenzio

In the relationships between lovers in Terence’s comedies it’s particularly evident an analogy with the routine procedure which involves the exchange of gifts as a means to create a strong relational bond, a typical custom of some ancient peoples, but you can find some traces of it during the modern times, too. This routine procedure has two different kinds of display: the first, focused on love, includes an exchange of favours, which isn’t economically quantifiable, and it’s typical of the relationships with women free from birth. Then, in this case, it is clear the intervention of fides as a guarantee that the exchange occurs regularly. These relationships are often linked to marriage. From a pragmatic analysis the prevailing relational pattern of this first kind of exchange is the complementary one, in which the dominant interlocutor is clearly the male partner. The second kind, linked to amor meretricius, indicates some quantifiable goods as the objects of the exchange, what refers to the etymological meaning of the term meretrix (the woman who perceives meritum or pretium for her favours). The prevailing relational pattern is the metacomplementary one: the lover gives the ruling role to his beloved. An exception to this subdivision is to be found, however, in some relationships with the court ladies. The main atypical case is that referring to Bacchide and Panfilo in Hecyra, where meritum is replaced by love and the exchange of favours, which aren’t quantifiable, linked to fides. It’s more difficult to define the relationship between Fedria and Taide in Eunuchus: in this work, in fact, fides and love are given a privileged role but some unequivocal features of amor meretricius remain in the background, emerging again every now and then. In the final part, in fact, Fedria doesn’t oppose at all the prospect that Taide may go round again with the soldier (obviously in a lower tone), but she considers this as a rather advantageous agreement.