Livius Andronicus, Lucius, c. 280/270–200 BCE

Lucius Livius Andronicus (c. 280/70–200 bce) was a Latin author of probable Greek origin who is credited with initiating the tradition of scripted dramatic performance at Rome and composing the first epic poem in Latin. Andronicus’s life appears to have spanned a large part of the 3rd century bce; the only firmly transmitted date concerns the performance of a hymn to Juno for which he was commissioned during the Second Punic War (207 bce). He is often linked to the year 240 bce, a widely accepted but controversial date for his first staging of Latin plays during the Ludi Romani (“Roman Games”). His translation of the Odyssey was influential, although its initial audience and level of circulation are debated. His works survive exclusively in fragments. Andronicus’s skeletal ancient biography suggests his status as a formerly enslaved person who was trafficked to Rome from Magna Graecia in the aftermath of war. Latin literature’s first author was thus a forcibly displaced migrant for whom Latin was a second or third language. This account may not be wholly accurate, but it aligns with other near-contemporary authorial biographies and various attested trends in Roman sociopolitical and cultural history during the increasingly mobile Middle Republic.