Quintus Novius (
''fl.'' 30 BC), was a
Roman
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...
dramatist, and composer of
Atellanae Fabulae The Atellan Farce (Latin: ''Atellanae Fabulae'' or ''Fabulae Atellanae'', "favola atellana"; ''Atellanicum exhodium'', "Atella comedies"), also known as the Oscan Games (Latin: ''ludi Osci'', "Oscan plays"), were masked improvised farces in Ancient ...
(Atellan Fables). His efforts seem to have been directed towards giving literary dignity to this form of drama without diminishing their popular quality and traditional cast of characters. He is known to have written his works around the same time as
Lucius Pomponius
Lucius Pomponius (fl. c. 90 BC or earlier) was a Roman dramatist. Called ''Bononiensis'' (“native of Bononia” (i.e. Bologna), Pomponius was a writer of Atellanae Fabulae (Atellan Fables), and a near contemporary of Quintus Novius. Pomponius ...
, who also wrote Atellanae Fabulae;
Macrobius
Macrobius Ambrosius Theodosius, usually referred to as Macrobius (fl. AD 400), was a Roman provincial who lived during the early fifth century, during late antiquity, the period of time corresponding to the Later Roman Empire, and when Latin was ...
makes reference to him as a very well-esteemed writer whose ''atellaniolae'' ("little Atellans") found a receptive audience.
Some of Novius' known works, among the forty-three that are attributed to him, include:
Sources
Meyer, Maurice, “Études sur le théâtre latin”(1847)
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Ancient Roman comic dramatists
1st-century BC Romans
1st-century BC writers
Novii