Terentia Gens
plebeian. The name was said by Varro to be derived from the Sabine word terenus, which signified " soft" (Macr. 2.9.) The Terentii are mentioned as early as B. C. 462, for the C. Terentillus Arsa, who was tribune of the plebs in that year (Liv. 3.9), must have belonged to the gens; and indeed he is called C. Terentius by Dionysius (10.1). The first member of the gens who obtained the consulship was C. Terentius Varro, who commanded at the fatal battle of Cannae in B. C. 216; and persons of the name continue to be mentioned under the early emperors. The principal surnames of the Terentii during the republic are CULLEO, LUCANUS, and VARRO: there are a few others of less importance, which are given below under TERENTIUS.
From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.