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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
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