Livius Andronicus (279–199 BCE)
Born 279 BCE, died 199 BCE.
Lucius Livius Andronicus (; Greek: Λούκιος Λίβιος Ἀνδρόνικος; c. 284 – c. 204 BC) was a Greco-Roman dramatist, actor, and epic poet of the Old Latin period during the Roman Republic. Andronicus began as an educator in the service of a noble family, producing Latin translations of Greek works, including Homer's Odyssey. 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 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.
Text from the Wikipedia article Livius_Andronicus, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.