must have been set free before B.C. 240, and the victor
of Sena could hardly have been born earlier than B.C. 258. This
connexion made M. Livius Salinator when consul, B.C. 207, select
Livius Andronicus to prepare a hymn of expiation to the Aventine Juno,
and, probably in the same year, to compose a hymn of thanksgiving for
the success of Rome in the Hannibalic War. For his services the
privileges of a guild were assigned to writers and actors.

Livy xxvii. 37, 'Decrevere pontifices ut virgines ter novenae per
urbem euntes carmen canerent ... conditum ab Livio poeta ... Carmen in
Iunonem reginam canentes ibant illa tempestate forsitan laudabile
rudibus ingeniis, nunc abhorrens et inconditum, si referatur.'

Fest. p. 333, 'Cum Livius Andronicus bello Punico secundo scripsisset
carmen quod a virginibus est cantatum, quia prosperius res publica
populi Romani geri coepta est, publice attributa est ei in Aventino
aedis Minervae, in qua liceret scribis histrionibusque consistere ac
dona ponere, in honorem Livi, quia is et scribebat fabulas et agebat.'

Livius had a twofold reason for writing, (_a_) To assist him in his
profession as a schoolmaster he published a translation of the
_Odyssey_; (_b_) as an actor, he wrote the plays he acted, and
afterwards published them.

Sueton. _Gramm._ 1, 'Livium et Ennium ... quos utraque lingua domi
forisque docuisse adnotatum est.'

Livy vii. 2, 8, 'Livius ... qui ab saturis ausus est primus argumento
fabulam serere, idem scilicet, id quod omnes tum erant, suorum
carminum actor.'

(2) WORKS.

1. _Tragedies._--From the scanty fragments extant and from the titles
(_Achilles_, _Aegisthus_, and six others are known) we see that these
were close imitations of Greek plays. Thus l. 38 (Ribbeck),

'Quem ego nefrendem alui lacteam immulgens opem,'

is, according to Conington, a rendering of Aesch. _Choeph._ 883-4,

+maston pros ho sy polla de brizon hama
ouloisoin ezemexas eutraphes gala+.

2. _Comedies._--Slight fragments of three of these are extant.

3. A translation of the _Odyssey_ in Saturnians.[1] This, though rough
and incorrect, long remained a school-book. So Hor. _Ep._ ii. I, 69
_sqq._,

'Non equidem insector delendave carmina Livi
esse reor, memini quae plagosum mihi parvo
Orbilium dictare: sed emendata videri
pulchraque et exactis minimum distantia miror.'

For examples of translation, of. Gell, xviii. 9, 5, 'Offendi ...
librum ... Livi Andronici, qu