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35-556: [REDACTED] Look up naevius in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Naevius may refer to: Gnaeus Naevius , Roman poet and dramatist Naevius (spider) , a genus of spiders Naevius Sutorius Macro , confidant of Roman emperors Tiberius and Caligula See also [ edit ] [REDACTED] Search for "Naevius" on Misplaced Pages. All pages with titles containing Naevius Naevia gens The Porta Naevia

70-631: A grammarian of a later age. The earlier part of it treated of the mythical adventures of Aeneas in Sicily , Carthage , and Italy, and borrowed from the interview of Zeus and Thetis in the first book of the Iliad the idea of the interview of Jupiter and Venus ; which Virgil has made one of the cardinal passages in the Aeneid . The later part treated of the events of the First Punic War in

105-466: A drama in or about the year 235, and continued for thirty years. Towards the close he incurred the hostility of some of the nobility, especially, it is said, of the Metelli , by the attacks which he made upon them on the stage, and at their insistence he was imprisoned. After writing two plays during his imprisonment, in which he is said to have apologized for his former rudeness, he was liberated through

140-403: A genuinely idiomatic ring. As a dramatist he worked more in the spirit of Plautus than of Ennius, Pacuvius, Accius, or Terence ; but the great Umbrian humorist is separated from his older contemporary, not only by his breadth of comic power, but by his general attitude of moral and political indifference. The power of Naevius was the more genuine Italian gift, the power of satiric criticism which

175-631: A historical epic in hexameters called the Annales . Other minor works include the Epicharmus , Epigrammata , the Euhemerus , the Hedyphagetica , Praecepta / Protrepticus , Saturae (or Satires ), Scipio , and Sota . The Annales was an epic poem in fifteen books, later expanded to eighteen, covering Roman history from the fall of Troy in 1184 BC down to the censorship of Cato

210-571: A proverbial or idiomatic phrase indicating boastfulness. Further, the fact that there was a plebeian gens Naevia in Rome , makes it quite possible, even likely, that Naevius was a Roman citizen by birth. He served either in the Roman army or among the socii in the First Punic War , and thus must have reached manhood before 241. His career as a dramatic author began with the exhibition of

245-464: A reader might find the best type of fish. Most of the fragments, replete with unique terms for fish and numerous place names, are corrupt or damaged. The Hedyphagetica is written in hexameters , but differs from the Annales in regards to "metrical practices"; this difference is largely due to each works' distinct subject matter. The titles Praecepta and Protrepticus were likely used to refer to

280-454: A recollection of a dream in which the ancient epic-writer Homer informed him that his spirit had been reborn into Ennius. It is true that the doctrine of the transmigration of souls once flourished in the areas of Italy settled by Greeks, but the statement might have been no more than a literary flourish. Ennius seems to have been given to making large claims, as in the report by Maurus Servius Honoratus that he claimed descent from Messapus,

315-546: A recount[ing]" of Euhemerus's original work the Sacred History , but it is unclear if this means Ennius simply translated the original from Greek into Latin, or added in his own elements. Most of what is preserved of this work comes to us from Lactantius, and these snippets suggest that the Euhemerus was a prose text. The Hedyphagetica took much of its substance from the gastronomical epic of Archestratus of Gela. The extant portions of Ennius's poem discuss where

350-438: A variety of poetic metres. The poems in this collection "were mostly concerned with practical wisdom, often driving home a lesson with the help of a fable." Ennius's Scipio was a work (possibly a panegyric poem) that apparently celebrated the life and deeds of Scipio Africanus . Hardly anything remains of this work, and what is preserved is embedded in the works of others. Unfortunately, "no quotation of [ Scipio ] supplies

385-406: Is a marked feature in all the older Latin poets down even to Lucretius . He was not only the oldest native dramatist, but the first author of an epic poem ( Bellum Punicum ) which, by combining the representation of actual contemporary history with a mythical background, may be said to have created the Roman type of epic poetry . The poem was one continuous work, but was divided into seven books by

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420-446: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Gnaeus Naevius Much of the information concerning the life of Naevius is coloured by uncertainty. Aulus Gellius describes the epitaph of Naevius as demonstrating "Campanian arrogance," based on which statement it has been suggested that Naevius was a native of Campania . The phrase "Campanian arrogance" seems, however, to have been

455-512: Is there characterized as ardent and impetuous in character and style. He is also appealed to, with Plautus and Ennius, as a master of his art in one of the prologues of Terence . Naevius' comedy, like that of Plautus, seems to have been rather a free adaptation of his originals than a rude copy of them, as those of Livius probably were, or an artistic copy like those of Terence. The titles of most of them, like those of Plautus, and unlike those of Caecilius and Terence, are Latin, not Greek. He drew from

490-572: The Elder in 184 BC. It was the first Latin poem to adopt the dactylic hexameter metre used in Greek epic and didactic poetry, leading it to become the standard metre for these genres in Latin poetry. The Annals became a school text for Roman schoolchildren, eventually supplanted by Virgil 's Aeneid . About 600 lines survive. The Epicharmus was inspired by the philosophical hypotheses developed by

525-518: The Sicilian poet and philosopher Epicharmus of Kos , after which Ennius's work took its name. In the Epicharmus , the poet describes a dream he had in which he died and was transported to some place of heavenly enlightenment. Here, he met Epicharmus, who explained the nature of the gods and taught Ennius the physics of the universe . The Euhemerus presented a theological doctrine based on

560-529: The capture of Ambracia , at which he was present, the subject of a play and of an episode in the Annales . It was through the influence of Nobilior's son Quintus that Ennius subsequently obtained Roman citizenship. But he himself lived plainly and simply in the literary quarter on the Aventine Hill with the poet Caecilius Statius , a fellow adapter of Greek plays. At about the age of 70 Ennius died, immediately after producing his tragedy Thyestes . In

595-415: The completion of a great career is expressed in the memorial lines which he composed to be placed under his bust after death: "Let no one weep for me, or celebrate my funeral with mourning; for I still live, as I pass to and fro through the mouths of men." Ennius continued the nascent literary tradition by writing plays in Greek and Roman style ( praetextae and palliatae ), as well as his most famous work,

630-466: The divine Muses would weep for the poet Naevius. And so after he was delivered to the strongbox of Orc[h]us, Romans forgot how to speak the Latin language. If these lines were dictated by a jealousy of the growing ascendancy of Ennius , the life of Naevius must have been prolonged considerably beyond 204, the year in which Ennius began his career as an author in Rome. Unlike Livius Andronicus , Naevius

665-399: The ideas of Euhemerus of Messene, who argued that the gods of Olympus were not supernatural powers that interference in the lives of humans, but rather heroes of old who after death were eventually regarded as deities due to their valor, bravery, or cultural impact (this belief is now known as euhemerism ). Both Cicero and Lactantius write that the Euhemerus was a "translat[ion] and

700-591: The interference of the tribunes of the commons; but he had shortly afterwards to retire from Rome (in or about 204) to Utica . It may have been during his exile, when withdrawn from his active career as a dramatist, that he composed or completed his poem on the First Punic War. Probably his latest composition was his own epitaph, written in saturnian verse : Immortales mortales si foret fas flere, flerent diuae Camenae Naeuium poetam. itaque, postquam est Orchi traditus thesauro, obliti sunt Romani loquier lingua Latina. If immortals were allowed to weep for mortals,

735-474: The last book of his epic poem, in which he seems to have given various details of his personal history, he mentioned that he was in his 67th year at the date of its composition. He compared himself, in contemplation of the close of the great work of his life, to a gallant horse which, after having often won the prize at the Olympic Games , obtained his rest when weary with age. A similar feeling of pride at

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770-401: The last named being performed at the opening of Pompey 's theatre (55 BC). The national cast of his genius and temper was shown by his deviating from his Greek originals, and producing at least two specimens of the fabula praetexta (national drama), one founded on the childhood of Romulus and Remus ( Lupus or Alimonium Romuli et Remi ), the other called Clastidium , which celebrated

805-479: The legendary king of his native district. The partially Hellenised city of Rudiae , his place of birth, was certainly in the area settled by the Messapians . And this, he used to say, according to Aulus Gellius , had endowed him with a triple linguistic and cultural heritage, fancifully described as "three hearts… Greek, Oscan and Latin". The public career of Ennius first really emerges in middle life, when he

840-499: The progress of the second Punic war . Besides his attack on the Metelli and other members of the aristocracy, the great Scipio is the object of a censorious criticism on account of a youthful escapade attributed to him. Among the few lines still remaining from his lost comedies, we seem to recognize the idiomatic force and rapidity of movement characteristic of the style of Plautus. There is also found that love of alliteration which

875-496: The same (possibly exhortatory) work. However, given this work's almost non-existent nature (only the word pannibus —an "unusual" form of the word pannis , meaning "rags"—is preserved in the work of the Latin grammarian Charisius ), this position is extremely difficult to verify. The Saturae is a collection of about thirty lines from satirical poems—making it the first extant instance of Roman satire. These lines are written in

910-459: The style of a metrical chronicle. An important influence in Roman literature and belief, which had its origin in Sicily, first appeared in this poem: the recognition of the mythical connection of Aeneas and his Trojans with the foundation of Rome. The few remaining fragments produce the impression of vivid and rapid narrative, to which the flow of the native Saturnian verse , in contradistinction to

945-467: The victory of Marcus Claudius Marcellus over the Celts (222 BC). But it was as a writer of comedy that he was most famous, most productive and most original. While he is never ranked as a writer of tragedy with Ennius, Pacuvius , or Accius , he is placed in the canon of the grammarian Volcatius Sedigitus third (immediately after Caecilius and Plautus ) in the rank of Roman comic authors. He

980-457: The weighty and complex structure of the hexameter , was naturally adapted. The impression we get of the man is that, whether or not he actually enjoyed the full rights of Roman citizenship, he was a vigorous representative of the bold combative spirit of the ancient Roman commons. He was one of those who made the Latin language into a great organ of literature. The phrases still quoted from him have nothing of an antiquated sound, though they have

1015-411: The writers of the old political comedy of Athens , as well as from the new comedy of manners, and he attempted to make the stage at Rome, as it had been at Athens, an arena of political and personal warfare. A strong spirit of partisanship is recognized in more than one of the fragments; and this spirit is thoroughly popular and adverse to the senatorial ascendancy which became more and more confirmed with

1050-559: Was a gate in the Servian Wall on the Aventine Hill of Rome Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Naevius . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Naevius&oldid=1041120433 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description

1085-510: Was a native Italian, not a Greek; he was also an original writer, not a mere adapter or translator. If it is due to Livius that the forms of Latin literature were, from the first, molded on those of Greek literature, it is due to Naevius that much of its spirit and substance was of native growth . Like Livius, Naevius professed to adapt Greek tragedies and comedies to the Roman stage. Among the titles of his tragedies are Aegisthus , Lycurgus , Andromache or Hector Proficiscens , Equus Troianus ,

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1120-483: Was a writer and poet who lived during the Roman Republic . He is often considered the father of Roman poetry . He was born in the small town of Rudiae , located near modern Lecce (ancient Calabria , today Salento ), a town founded by the Messapians , and could speak Greek as well as Latin and Oscan (his native language). Although only fragments of his works survive, his influence in Latin literature

1155-598: Was employed in making men ridiculous; not, like that of Plautus, in extracting amusement from the humours, follies and eccentricities of life. Although our means of forming a fair estimate of Naevius are scanty, all that we do know of him leads to the conclusion that he was far from being the least among the makers of Roman literature, and that with the loss of his writings there was lost a vein of national feeling and genius which rarely reappears. Ennius Quintus Ennius ( Latin pronunciation: [ˈkᶣiːnt̪ʊs̺ ˈɛnːiʊs̺] ; c.  239  – c.  169 BC )

1190-657: Was serving in the army with the rank of centurion during the Second Punic War . While in Sardinia in the year 204 BC, he is said to have attracted the attention of Cato the Elder and was taken by him to Rome. There he taught Greek and adapted Greek plays for a livelihood, and by his poetical compositions gained the friendship of some of the greatest men in Rome whose achievements he praised. Amongst these were Scipio Africanus and Fulvius Nobilior , whom he accompanied on his Aetolian campaign (189). Afterwards he made

1225-403: Was significant, particularly in his use of Greek literary models. Very little is reliably known about the life of Ennius. His contemporaries hardly mentioned him and much that is related about him could have been embroidered from references to himself in his now fragmentary writings. Some lines of the Annales , as well as ancient testimonies, for example, suggest that Ennius opened his epic with

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