Extract

Lucius Livius Andronicus (c. 280/70–200 bce), commonly held to be the first at Rome to have composed poems of Greek type in Latin. He transposed Homer's Od. into Latin, produced a comedy and/or a tragedy at the *Ludi Romani of 240 bce (and further plays thereafter) and wrote the text of a hymn to Juno at a moment of crisis in 207. Ancient biographers (who were divided about his dates) presented him as a half-Greek from *Tarentum, who provided grammatical instruction in both Greek and Latin and who played roles in the stage plays he composed. He may have been a freedman of *M. Livius Salinator (consul 207). Livius’ prestige persuaded the Roman authorities to permit actors and stage-poets to assemble for religious purposes in the *Aventine temple of *Minerva (collegium scribarum histrionumque).Titles of three comedies (Gladiolus, Ludius, †Virgo) and at least eight tragedies (Achilles, Aegisthus, Aiax mastigophorus, Andromeda, Danae, Equos Troianus, Hermiona, Tereus) are transmitted.