Plautus

Titus Maccius Plautus (c. 254–184 BC) was a renowned Roman playwright of the Old Latin period, celebrated as Rome's greatest comic dramatist whose comedies are the earliest complete surviving works of Latin literature[1][2]. Born in Sarsina, Umbria (modern-day Emilia-Romagna, Italy), he adapted Greek New Comedy into distinctly Roman farces featuring stock characters like clever servants and boastful soldiers[1][3]. His 21 surviving plays, including "The Twin Menaechmi" and "Miles Gloriosus," significantly influenced later European drama, notably inspiring Shakespeare's "The Comedy of Errors"[3][6].