Livius Andronicus

Lucius Livius Andronicus (/ˈlɪviəs/; Greek: Λούκιος Λίβιος Ανδρόνικος; c. 284 – c. 204 BC)[1][2] was a Greco-Roman dramatist and epic poet of the Old Latin period during the Roman Republic.

He began as an educator in the service of a noble family, producing Latin translations of Greek works, including Homer's Odyssey.

[4] The Roman biographer Suetonius later coined the term "half-Greek" of Livius and Ennius (referring to their genre, not their ethnic backgrounds).

[13] Cicero says, "This Livius exhibited his first performance at Rome in the Consulship of M. Tuditanus, and C. Clodius the son of Caecus, the year before Ennius was born," that is, in 240 BC.

Cicero disagrees with this view on the grounds that it would make Livius younger than Plautus and Naevius, though he was supposed to have been the first to produce a play.

The passage is ambiguous concerning the events actually happening in Olympiad 148; Andronicus might have been given liberty or simply been honoured, having been liberated long ago.

Livius' translation made this fundamental Greek text accessible to Romans, and advanced literary culture in Latin.

[citation needed] Also, early Roman poetry made use of pathos, expressive force, and dramatic tension, so Livius interprets Homer with a mind to these ideas as well.

[16] In general, Livius did not make arbitrary changes to the text; rather, he attempted to remain faithful to Homer and to the Latin language.

The titles of his known tragedies are Achilles, Aegisthus, Aiax Mastigophorus (Ajax with the Whip), Andromeda, Antiopa, Danae, Equus Troianus, Hermiona, and Tereus.

According to Livy,[13] Livius also composed a hymn for a chorus of 27 girls in honour of Juno to be performed in public as part of religious ceremonies in 207.

Because of the success of this hymn, Livius received public honours when his professional organization, the collegium scribarum histrionumque was installed in the Temple of Minerva on the Aventine.