comic poet who flourished at Rome about 240 years before the Christian era. He was the first who turned the personal satires and Festennine verses, so long the admiration of the Romans, into the form of a proper dialogue and regular play. Though the character of a player, so valued and applauded in Greece, was reckoned vile and despicable amongst the Romans, Andronicus acted a part in his dramatical compositions, and engaged the attention of his audience by repeating what he had worked up after the manner of the Greeks. Andronicus was the freedman of M. Livius Salinator, whose children he educated. His poetry had grown obsolete in the age of Cicero, whose nicety and judgment would not even recommend the reading of it.