Lucius Livius Andronicus (; ; ) was a Greco-Roman

dramatist A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays, which are a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between characters and is intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. Ben Jonson coined the term "playwri ...

and epic poet of the

Old Latin Old Latin, also known as Early, Archaic or Priscan Latin (Classical ), was the Latin language in the period roughly before 75 BC, i.e. before the age of Classical Latin. A member of the Italic languages, it descends from a common Proto-Italic ...

period during the

Roman Republic The Roman Republic ( ) was the era of Ancient Rome, classical Roman civilisation beginning with Overthrow of the Roman monarchy, the overthrow of the Roman Kingdom (traditionally dated to 509 BC) and ending in 27 BC with the establis ...

. He began as an educator in the service of a noble family, producing

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

translations of Greek works, including

Homer Homer (; , ; possibly born ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Despite doubts about his autho ...

's ''

Odyssey The ''Odyssey'' (; ) is one of two major epics of ancient Greek literature attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest surviving works of literature and remains popular with modern audiences. Like the ''Iliad'', the ''Odyssey'' is divi ...

''. The translations were meant, at first, as educational devices for the school which he founded. He also wrote works for the stage—both tragedies and comedies—which are regarded as the first dramatic works written in the Latin language. His comedies were based on Greek New Comedy and featured characters in Greek costume. Thus, the Romans referred to this new genre by the term comoedia palliata or fabula palliata, meaning "cloaked comedy," the pallium being a Greek-style cloak. The Roman biographer

Suetonius Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus (), commonly referred to as Suetonius ( ; – after AD 122), was a Roman historian who wrote during the early Imperial era of the Roman Empire. His most important surviving work is ''De vita Caesarum'', common ...

later coined the term "half-Greek" of Livius and Ennius (referring to their genre, not their ethnic backgrounds). The genre was imitated by later generations of playwrights, and Andronicus is accordingly regarded as the father of Roman drama and of Latin literature in general; that is, he was the first man of letters to write in Latin.

Varro Marcus Terentius Varro (116–27 BCE) was a Roman polymath and a prolific author. He is regarded as ancient Rome's greatest scholar, and was described by Petrarch as "the third great light of Rome" (after Virgil and Cicero). He is sometimes call ...

Cicero Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, orator, writer and Academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises tha ...

, and

Horace Quintus Horatius Flaccus (; 8 December 65 BC – 27 November 8 BC), Suetonius, Life of Horace commonly known in the English-speaking world as Horace (), was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus (also known as Octavian). Th ...

, all men of letters during the subsequent

Classical Latin Classical Latin is the form of Literary Latin recognized as a Literary language, literary standard language, standard by writers of the late Roman Republic and early Roman Empire. It formed parallel to Vulgar Latin around 75 BC out of Old Latin ...

period, considered Livius Andronicus to have been the originator of

Latin literature Latin literature includes the essays, histories, poems, plays, and other writings written in the Latin language. The beginning of formal Latin literature dates to 240 BC, when the first stage play in Latin was performed in Rome. Latin literatur ...

. He is the earliest Roman poet whose name is known.Rose (1954, 21).

Biography

Origins

He was born in Tarentum,

Magna Graecia Magna Graecia refers to the Greek-speaking areas of southern Italy, encompassing the modern Regions of Italy, Italian regions of Calabria, Apulia, Basilicata, Campania, and Sicily. These regions were Greek colonisation, extensively settled by G ...

. Livius was originally a highly educated Greek, who was bought as a slave by Roman nobles.

Name

In ancient sources, Livius Andronicus is either given that name or is simply called Livius. Andronicus is the Latinization of a Greek name, which was held by a number of Greek historical figures of the period. It is generally considered that Andronicus came from his Greek name and that Livius, a name originally local to

Latium Latium ( , ; ) is the region of central western Italy in which the city of Rome was founded and grew to be the capital city of the Roman Empire. Definition Latium was originally a small triangle of fertile, volcanic soil (Old Latium) on whic ...

, was the gentilicium, the family name, of his patron (''patronus''). His career at Rome was launched from servitude and he became a

freedman A freedman or freedwoman is a person who has been released from slavery, usually by legal means. Historically, slaves were freed by manumission (granted freedom by their owners), emancipation (granted freedom as part of a larger group), or self- ...

(''libertus'') by the grace of his master, one of the '' Livia gens''. The

praenomen The praenomen (; plural: praenomina) was a first name chosen by the parents of a Ancient Rome, Roman child. It was first bestowed on the ''dies lustricus'' (day of lustration), the eighth day after the birth of a girl, or the ninth day after the ...

Lucius is given by

Aulus Gellius Aulus Gellius (c. 125after 180 AD) was a Roman author and grammarian, who was probably born and certainly brought up in Rome. He was educated in Athens, after which he returned to Rome. He is famous for his ''Attic Nights'', a commonplace book, ...

and

Cassiodorus Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator (c. 485 – c. 585), commonly known as Cassiodorus (), was a Christian Roman statesman, a renowned scholar and writer who served in the administration of Theodoric the Great, king of the Ostrogoths. ''Senato ...

Dates

Livius' dates are based mainly on Cicero''Brutus'' 18.72–74. and Livy. 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 goes on to relate the point of view of Accius, that Livius was captured from Tarentum in 209, and produced a play in 197. Cicero disagrees with this view on the grounds that it would make Livius younger than

Plautus Titus Maccius Plautus ( ; 254 – 184 BC) was a Roman playwright of the Old Latin period. His comedies are the earliest Latin literary works to have survived in their entirety. He wrote Palliata comoedia, the genre devised by Livius Andro ...

and Naevius, though he was supposed to have been the first to produce a play. Livy says, "The pontiffs also decreed that three bands of maidens, each consisting of nine, should go through the city singing a hymn. This hymn C. Claudius Nero for the first time, Marcus Livius Salinator">M. Livius for the second;" that is, in 207. Only the dates of 240 and 207 seem exempt from controversy.Conte (1994, 40).

Events

Jerome has some additional detail that tends to support the capture at Tarentum and enslavement. His entry for the year of Abraham 1829, the second year of the 148th Olympiad (186/185 BC), of his ''Chronicon (Jerome), Chronicon'', reads

''Titus Livius tragoediarum scriptor clarus habetur, qui ob ingenii meritum a Livio Salinatore, cuius liberos erudiebat, libertate donatus est.''

Titus Livius, author of tragedies, is held to be outstanding. He was given liberty by Livius Salinator, whose children he was educating, by merit of his intelligence.

Jerome is the only author to name him Titus. 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 Salinator might be Gaius Livius Salinator, his father Marcus Livius Salinator, or his grandfather Marcus. If Jerome means that the liberation took place in 186, then he seems to be following Accius' view, which might have been presented in the missing portions of Suetonius' ''de Poetis'' and read by Jerome. The passage is not conclusive about anything. However, the mixed name of Livius and his being associated with Salinator suggests that he was captured at the first fall of Tarentum in 272, sold to the first Marcus Livius Salinator, tutored the second and was set free to have an independent career when the task was complete.

Works

''Odusia''

Livius made a translation of the ''

'', entitled the ''Odusia'' in Latin, for his classes in Saturnian verse. All that survives is parts of 46 scattered lines from 17 books of the Greek 24-book epic. In some lines, he translates literally, though in others more freely. His translation of the ''Odyssey'' had a great historical importance. Livius' translation made this fundamental Greek text accessible to Romans, and advanced literary culture in Latin. This project was one of the first examples of translation as an artistic process; the work was to be enjoyed on its own, and Livius strove to preserve the artistic quality of the original. Since there was no tradition of epic in Italy before him, Livius must have faced enormous problems. For example, he used archaising forms to make his language more solemn and intense. His innovations would be important in the history of Latin poetry. In the fragments we have, it is clear that Livius had a desire to remain faithful to the original and to be clear, while having to alter untranslatable phrases and ideas. For example, the phrase "equal to the gods", which would have been unacceptable to Romans, was changed to "''summus adprimus''", "greatest and of first rank". 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. In general, Livius did not make arbitrary changes to the text; rather, he attempted to remain faithful to Homer and to the Latin language.

Plays

Livius' first play, according to Cicero, was staged in 240.

Livy Titus Livius (; 59 BC – AD 17), known in English as Livy ( ), was a Roman historian. He wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people, titled , covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome before the traditional founding i ...

tells us that Livius was the first to create a play with a plot. One story says that after straining his voice, Livius, who was also an actor, was the first to leave the singing to singers and limited the actors to dialogue. His dramatic works were written in the iambic senarius and trochaic septenarius. They included both lyric passages (''cantica'') and dialogue (''diverbia''). His dramatic works had large element of solos for chief actor, often himself. It is not known whether he had a chorus. These dramatic works of Livius Andronicus were consistent with Greek requirements of drama and probably had Greek models, and we have no more than 60 fragments, as quoted in other authors. The titles of his known tragedies are ''Achilles'', ''Aegisthus'', ''Aiax Mastigophorus'' (''Ajax with the Whip''), ''Andromeda'', ''Antiopa'', ''Danae'', ''Equus Troianus'', ''Hermiona'', and ''Tereus''. Two titles of his comedies are certain, ''Gladiolus'' and ''Ludius'', though the third, ''Virgo'', is probably corrupt. They were all composed on the model of Greek New Comedy, adapting stories from the Greek. The Romans called this sort of adaptation of comedy by Livius and his immediate successors '' fabulae palliatae'', or ''comoedia palliata'', named from the ''pallium'', or short cloak, worn by the actors.Ashmore (1908, 14) Of Andronicus' ''palliata'' we have 6 fragments of 1 verse each and 1 title, ''Gladiolus'', (''Little Saber'').

The hymn

According to Livy,27.37.7 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 Minerva (; ; ) is the Roman goddess of wisdom, justice, law, victory, and the sponsor of arts, trade, and strategy. She is also a goddess of warfare, though with a focus on strategic warfare, rather than the violence of gods such as Mars. Be ...

on the Aventine. Actors and writers would gather here and offer gifts.

Notes

External links

* *
Lucius Livius Andronicus
''PHI Latin Texts'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Andronicus, Lucius Livius Ancient Roman tragic dramatists Ancient Tarantines Old Latin-language writers People from Taranto Roman-era Greeks Ancient Greeks in Rome 3rd-century BC Romans 3rd-century BC Greek people 3rd-century BC writers in Latin Livii 280s BC births 200s BC deaths Translators of Homer Ancient Greek slaves and freedmen Republican era slaves and freedmen Greek–Latin translators