Plautus
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Titus Maccius Plautus was a Roman playwright of the Old Latin period. His comedies are the earliest Latin literary works to have survived in their entirety. He wrote Palliata comoedia, the genre devised by Livius Andronicus, the innovator of Latin literature. The word Plautine refers to both Plautus's own works and works similar to or influenced by his.
18th-century portrait of Plautus
Old Latin
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Old Latin, also known as Early Latin or Archaic Latin, was the Latin language in the period roughly before 75 BC, i.e. before the age of Classical Latin. It descends from a common Proto-Italic language; Latino-Faliscan is likely a separate branch from Osco-Umbrian with possible further relation to other Italic languages and to Celtic; e.g. the Italo-Celtic hypothesis.
The Duenos inscription, one of the earliest Old Latin texts
The Praeneste Fibula, the earliest known specimen of the Latin language and dated to the first half of the seventh century BC.
The Forum inscription (Lapis Niger, "black stone"), one of the oldest known Latin inscriptions, from the 6th century BC; it is written boustrophedon, albeit irregularly; from a rubbing by Domenico Comparetti.
The Duenos Inscription on a trio of three globular kernos vases