Beginnings. As in most literatures, Roman creative writing began with patterned speech, or poetry. The earliest figure on record is Lucius Livius Andronicus, who translated Homer's Odyssey into the native Italian Saturnian meter. The principle underlying this verse-form is still disputed, but it apparently relied to some extent on alliteration. Livius Andronicus also wrote tragedies and comedies influenced by contemporary Greek models. One main thread of Latin literature emerges at its beginning, namely the encounter with Greece. Whether it is translated, adapted, used as inspiration or simply rejected, Greek literature provides a constant background for Latin literature even when a writer's primary models are Vergil's epic or Horace's satire. Livius Andronicus's younger contemporary Gnaeus Naevius (circa 265-190 B.C.E.), for instance, followed his precursor's lead, writing drama and an historical epic on the first Punic War, but his drama was set in Rome...