Terence and Plautus are the two important Roman playwrights whose comedies had lasting impact on millennia of playwrights.
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Terence
He was brought from northern Africa to Rome as a slave, by Terentius Lucanus, a Roman senator. He was then freed, and named 'Terence' after his patron, and 'Afer' after his place of birth. Terence, who was a member of the Scipionic circle (the literary group that formed around Publius Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus), became a Latin playwright basing his comedy on the Greek New Comedy of Menander.