Terpnus
was the most celebrated citharoedus of his time, and taught Nero to play and sing to the cithara. The master was wise enough to let his imperial pupil conquer him in the Grecian games. Terpnus continued to enjoy a great reputation under Vespasian. (Suet. Ner. 20; D. C. 63.8; Suet. Vcsp. 19; Philostr. Vit. Apollon. 5.7.)
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.