What you'll learn

• 1 (00:01) **Episode Introduction and Roman History Overview** - The host welcomes listeners to the first program on Roman literature, providing a high-level summary of Roman history's four periods: regal, republican, principate, and dominate.
• 2 (09:11) **The Lapis Niger Inscription: Rome's Earliest Writing** - The host begins the story of Latin literature by examining the Forum Inscription at the Lapis Niger shrine, one of the earliest known Latin inscriptions from the 500s BCE.
• 3 (19:28) **The Greek Influence on Roman Culture: A Nuanced View** - The host challenges the common assumption that Greek culture unilaterally suffused Rome, explaining that Greek language and ideas were part of the Roman experience from the very beginning.
• 4 (28:00) **The First Roman Stage Games in 364 BCE** - The host describes the political reforms of the 360s BCE and the first state-sponsored stage games (Ludi Scaenici) in September 364 BCE, marking a key moment in the birth of Roman theater.
• 5 (38:52) **The First Punic War and the Birth of Roman Literature in 240 BCE** - The host explains how the First Punic War (264-241 BCE) brought Romans and Greek Magna Graecians closer together, leading to the first translation of a Greek play into Latin in 240 BCE.
• 6 (48:25) **Livius Andronicus: The First Named Roman Author** - The host profiles Livius Andronicus, a slave from Magna Graecia who translated Homer's Odyssey into Latin and staged the first play with a plot in 240 BCE.
• 7 (52:10) **The Diverse Backgrounds of Rome's First Writers** - The host explains that none of the first practitioners of Latin literature were from Rome itself; they were imports, ex-slaves, and multilingual professionals from the Italian periphery.

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