person
Lucius Livius Andronicus
Livius Andronicus
also: Livius, Liviae
The earliest Latin poet, who produced the first scripted Roman play in 240 BC and translated the Odyssey into Saturnian verse (the 'Latin Odyssia'). Cicero (Brutus 71-73) judges his work crude and not worth re-reading, and discusses the disputed chronology of his life.
Reading notes
- Tusculan Disputations §1.3 About five hundred and ten years after the founding of Rome, Livius produced a play
Livius Andronicus, the freedman traditionally regarded as the founder of Latin literature, staged the first scripted play at Rome in 240 BC (Cicero's figure is approximate). This marks the conventional birth of Roman drama, a generation before Ennius.