Livius Andronicus
Encyclopedia
Livy
Titus Livius — known as Livy in English — was a Roman historian who wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people. Ab Urbe Condita Libri, "Chapters from the Foundation of the City," covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome well before the traditional foundation in 753 BC...
, was a Greco-Roman dramatist and epic poet
Epic poetry
An epic is a lengthy narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation. Oral poetry may qualify as an epic, and Albert Lord and Milman Parry have argued that classical epics were fundamentally an oral poetic form...
of the Old Latin
Old Latin
Old Latin refers to the Latin language in the period before the age of Classical Latin; that is, all Latin before 75 BC...
period. He began as an educator in the service of a noble family at Rome by translating Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
works into Latin, including Homer
Homer
In the Western classical tradition Homer , is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest ancient Greek epic poet. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature.When he lived is...
’s Odyssey
Odyssey
The Odyssey is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is, in part, a sequel to the Iliad, the other work ascribed to Homer. The poem is fundamental to the modern Western canon, and is the second—the Iliad being the first—extant work of Western literature...
. They were meant at first as educational devices in the school he founded. When it came to drama he began staging plays, both tragedies and comedies, which were the first Roman dramatic works. The comedy, based on Greek New Comedy, came to be called comoedia palliata
Fabula palliata
Fabula palliata or Palliata are names assigned by the Romans to a genre of comedy that reworked in Latin the themes of Greek New Comedy. The genre began with the comedies of Livius Andronicus, who also initiated Roman literature and Roman drama...
, "the Greek comedy," by the Romans. Suetonius
Suetonius
Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, commonly known as Suetonius , was a Roman historian belonging to the equestrian order in the early Imperial era....
later coined the term "half-Greek" of Livius and Ennius
Ennius
Quintus Ennius was a writer during the period of the Roman Republic, and is often considered the father of Roman poetry. He was of Calabrian descent...
(referring to their genre, not their ethnic backgrounds). The genre was imitated by the next dramatists to follow in Andronicus' footsteps and on that account he is regarded as the father of Roman drama
Theatre of ancient Rome
The theatre of ancient Rome was a thriving and diverse art form, ranging from festival performances of street theatre, nude dancing, and acrobatics, to the staging of Plautus's broadly appealing situation comedies, to the high-style, verbally elaborate tragedies of Seneca...
and of Latin literature in general; that is, he was the first man of letters to write in Latin. Varro
Marcus Terentius Varro
Marcus Terentius Varro was an ancient Roman scholar and writer. He is sometimes called Varro Reatinus to distinguish him from his younger contemporary Varro Atacinus.-Biography:...
, Cicero
Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero , was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.He introduced the Romans to the chief...
, and Horace
Horace
Quintus Horatius Flaccus , known in the English-speaking world as Horace, was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus.-Life:...
, all men of letters during the subsequent Classical Latin
Classical Latin
Classical Latin in simplest terms is the socio-linguistic register of the Latin language regarded by the enfranchised and empowered populations of the late Roman republic and the Roman empire as good Latin. Most writers during this time made use of it...
period, considered Livius Andronicus to have been the originator of Latin literature
Latin literature
Latin literature includes the essays, histories, poems, plays, and other writings of the ancient Romans. In many ways, it seems to be a continuation of Greek literature, using many of the same forms...
. He is the earliest Roman poet whose name is known.
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 LatiumLatium
Lazio is one of the 20 administrative regions of Italy, situated in the central peninsular section of the country. With about 5.7 million residents and a GDP of more than 170 billion euros, Lazio is the third most populated and the second richest region of Italy...
, was the gentilicium, the family name, of his patron (patronus)
Patronage in ancient Rome
Patronage was the distinctive relationship in ancient Roman society between the patronus and his client . The relationship was hierarchical, but obligations were mutual. The patronus was the protector, sponsor, and benefactor of the client...
. His career at Rome was launched from servitude and he became a freedman
Freedman
A freedman is a former slave who has been released from slavery, usually by legal means. Historically, slaves became freedmen either by manumission or emancipation ....
(libertus) by the grace of his master, one of the Livia gens
Livius
Livius is the nomen of an individual male of the Livia gens, a family of ancient Rome. Collectively they were termed the Livii . Any individual female was called Livia. Both male and female names might be qualified by one or more agnomina. Males in addition had a praenomen...
. The praenomen
Praenomen
The praenomen was a personal name chosen by the parents of a Roman child. It was first bestowed on the dies lustricus , the eighth day after the birth of a girl, or the ninth day after the birth of a boy...
Lucius is given by Aulus Gellius and Cassiodorus
Cassiodorus
Flavius Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator , commonly known as Cassiodorus, was a Roman statesman and writer, serving in the administration of Theodoric the Great, king of the Ostrogoths. Senator was part of his surname, not his rank.- Life :Cassiodorus was born at Scylletium, near Catanzaro in...
.
Dates
Livius’ dates are based mainly on Cicero 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 AcciusLucius Accius
Lucius Accius , or Lucius Attius, was a Roman tragic poet and literary scholar. The son of a freedman, Accius was born at Pisaurum in Umbria, in 170 BC...
, that Livius was captured from Tarentum in 209 BC, and produced a play in 197 BC. Cicero disagrees with this view on the grounds that it would make Livius younger than Plautus
Plautus
Titus Maccius Plautus , commonly known as "Plautus", was a Roman playwright of the Old Latin period. His comedies are the earliest surviving intact works in Latin literature. He wrote Palliata comoedia, the genre devised by the innovator of Latin literature, Livius Andronicus...
and Naevius
Gnaeus Naevius
Gnaeus Naevius was a Roman epic poet and dramatist of the Old Latin period. He had a notable literary career at Rome until his satiric comments delivered in comedy angered the Metelli family, one of whom was consul. After a sojourn in prison he recanted and was set free by the tribunes...
, 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 [the parthenion) was composed by the poet, Livius ...." This action was taken to expiate the gods after a series of evil portents in the consulship of "C. Claudius Nero for the first time, M. Livius for the second;" that is, in 207 BC. Only the dates of 240 and 207 BC seem exempt from controversy.
Events
JeromeJerome
Saint Jerome was a Roman Christian priest, confessor, theologian and historian, and who became a Doctor of the Church. He was the son of Eusebius, of the city of Stridon, which was on the border of Dalmatia and Pannonia...
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
Olympiad
An Olympiad is a period of four years, associated with the Olympic Games of Classical Greece. In the Hellenistic period, beginning with Ephorus, Olympiads were used as calendar epoch....
(186/185 BC), of his Chronicon
Chronicon (Jerome)
The Chronicle was a universal chronicle, one of Jerome's earliest attempts in the department of history...
, reads
"Titus Livius tragoediarum scriptor clarus habetur, qui ob ingenii meritorum 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; he could have been being given liberty or simply have been being honored, having been liberated long ago. Livius Salinator might be Gaius Livius Salinator
Gaius Livius Salinator
Gaius Livius Salinator, son of Marcus, was a Roman consul of the gens Livia, said to have founded the city of Forum Livii , in Italy, during his consulship in the year 188 BC. He also served as admiral when he was praetor in 191 BC in the war against Antiochus III the Great and defeated his...
, his father Marcus Livius Salinator
Marcus Livius Salinator
Marcus Livius Drusus Salinator , the son of Marcus , was a Roman consul who fought in both the First Punic wars and Second Punic wars most notably during the Battle of Zama....
, 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 BC, sold to the first Marcus Livius Salinator, tutored the second and was set free to have an independent career when the task was complete.
Odusia
Livius made a translation of the Odyssey, Odusia, for his classes in SaturnianSaturnian (poetry)
Saturnian meter or verse is an old Latin and Italic poetic form, of which the principles of versification have become obscure. Only 132 complete uncontroversial verses survive. 95 literary verses and partial fragments have been preserved as quotations in later grammatical writings, as well as 37...
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. Before then, the Mesopotamians and Egyptians had translated judicial and religious texts, but no one had yet translated a literary work written in a foreign language until the Roman empire. 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 artistic process. The work was to be enjoyed on its own, and Livius strove to preserve the artistic quality of original. Since there was no tradition of epic in Italy before him, Livius must have faced enormous problems. For example, he used archaizing forms to make his language more solemn and intense. His innovations will be important in 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 change 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 BC. LivyLivy
Titus Livius — known as Livy in English — was a Roman historian who wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people. Ab Urbe Condita Libri, "Chapters from the Foundation of the City," covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome well before the traditional foundation in 753 BC...
tells us that Livius was the first to create a fabula 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
Trochaic septenarius
In ancient Greek and Latin literature, the trochaic septenarius is one of two major forms of poetic metre based on the trochee as its dominant rhythmic unit, the other being trochaic octonarius. It is used in drama and less often in poetry....
. 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 tragedies
Tragedy
Tragedy is a form of art based on human suffering that offers its audience pleasure. While most cultures have developed forms that provoke this paradoxical response, tragedy refers to a specific tradition of drama that has played a unique and important role historically in the self-definition of...
we know 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
Fabula palliata
Fabula palliata or Palliata are names assigned by the Romans to a genre of comedy that reworked in Latin the themes of Greek New Comedy. The genre began with the comedies of Livius Andronicus, who also initiated Roman literature and Roman drama...
, or comoedia palliata, named from the pallium, or short cloak, worn by the actors. Of Andronicus' palliata we have 6 fragments of 1 verse each and 1 title, Gladiolus, (Little Saber).
The Hymn
According to Livy, Livius also composed a hymn for a chorus of 27 girls, a parthenion or girls’ song, in honor of JunoJuno (mythology)
Juno is an ancient Roman goddess, the protector and special counselor of the state. She is a daughter of Saturn and sister of the chief god Jupiter and the mother of Mars and Vulcan. Juno also looked after the women of Rome. Her Greek equivalent is Hera...
to be performed in public as part of religious ceremonies in 207 BC. Because of the success of this hymn, Livius received public honors when his professional organization, the collegium scribarum histrionumque was installed in the Temple of Minerva
Minerva
Minerva was the Roman goddess whom Romans from the 2nd century BC onwards equated with the Greek goddess Athena. She was the virgin goddess of poetry, medicine, wisdom, commerce, weaving, crafts, magic...
on the Aventine. Actors and writers would gather here and offer gifts.
See also
- LiviusLiviusLivius is the nomen of an individual male of the Livia gens, a family of ancient Rome. Collectively they were termed the Livii . Any individual female was called Livia. Both male and female names might be qualified by one or more agnomina. Males in addition had a praenomen...
- Old LatinOld LatinOld Latin refers to the Latin language in the period before the age of Classical Latin; that is, all Latin before 75 BC...
- Saturnian (poetry)Saturnian (poetry)Saturnian meter or verse is an old Latin and Italic poetic form, of which the principles of versification have become obscure. Only 132 complete uncontroversial verses survive. 95 literary verses and partial fragments have been preserved as quotations in later grammatical writings, as well as 37...
- Theatre of ancient RomeTheatre of ancient RomeThe theatre of ancient Rome was a thriving and diverse art form, ranging from festival performances of street theatre, nude dancing, and acrobatics, to the staging of Plautus's broadly appealing situation comedies, to the high-style, verbally elaborate tragedies of Seneca...