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28-442: He was the nephew and pupil of Ennius , by whom Roman tragedy was first raised to a position of influence and dignity. In the interval between the death of Ennius (169 BC) and the advent of Accius, the youngest and most productive of the tragic poets, Pacuvius alone maintained the continuity of the serious drama, and perpetuated the character first imparted to it by Ennius. Like Ennius he probably belonged to an Oscan stock, and

56-668: A context". Some have proposed that the work was written before the Annales , and others have said that the work was written after Scipio's 201 BC triumph that followed the Battle of Zama (202 BC). The Sota was a poem, potentially of some length, named after the Greek poet Sotades . The work, which followed a metre established by Sotades known as the "Sotadeus", concerned itself with a number of disparate topics and ideas. Gaius Lucilius Too Many Requests If you report this error to

84-631: 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

112-410: 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

140-546: 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

168-608: 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 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

196-438: 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

224-456: Is probably, like that of the visit of the young Terence to the veteran Caecilius Statius , due to the invention of later grammarians; but it is invented in accordance with the traditionary criticism (Horace, Epp. ii.1.5455) of the distinction between the two poets, the older being characterized rather by cultivated accomplishment ( doctus ), the younger by vigour and animation ( altus ). Pacuvius' epitaph, said to have been composed by himself,

252-400: Is quoted by Aulus Gellius (i.24), with a tribute of admiration to its "modesty, simplicity and fine serious spirit": Adulescens, tametsi properas, te hoc saxum rogat Ut sese aspicias, deinde quod scriptum 'st legas Hic sunt poetae Pacuvi Marci sita ossa. Hoc volebam nescius ne esses. Vale. "Young man, though you are in a hurry, this stone asks you to look at it, then to read what

280-493: Is written. Here are placed the poet Pacuvius Marcus's bones. I wished you to know this. Farewell." Cicero , who frequently quotes from him with great admiration, appears ( De Optimo Genere Oratorum , i) to rank him first among the Roman tragic poets, as Ennius among the epic, and Caecilius among the comic poets. The fragments of Pacuvius quoted by Cicero in illustration or enforcement of his own ethical teaching appeal, by

308-475: The Annales , as well as ancient testimonies, for example, suggest that Ennius opened his epic with 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

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336-617: The Battle of Pydna (168 BC), as the Clastidium of Naevius and the Ambracia of Ennius were written in commemoration of great military successes. He continued to write tragedies till the age of eighty, when he exhibited a play in the same year as Accius, who was then thirty years of age. He retired to Tarentum for the last years of his life, and a story is told by Aulus Gellius (xiii.2) of his being visited there by Accius on his way to Asia , who read his Atreus to him. The story

364-520: 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

392-518: 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

420-529: 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

448-415: 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,

476-499: The conclusions of speculative philosophy as well as of common sense to assail some of the prevailing forms of superstition. Among the passages quoted from Pacuvius are several which indicate a taste both for physical and ethical speculation, and others which expose the pretensions of religious imposture. These poets aided also in developing that capacity which the Roman language subsequently displayed of being an organ of oratory, history and moral disquisition. The literary language of Rome

504-548: The fortitude, dignity, and magnanimity of the sentiment expressed in them, to what was noblest in the Roman temperament. They are inspired also by a fervid and steadfast glow of spirit and reveal a gentleness and humanity of sentiment blended with the severe gravity of the original Roman character. So far too as the Romans were capable of taking interest in speculative questions, the tragic poets contributed to stimulate curiosity on such subjects, and they anticipated Lucretius in using

532-399: 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

560-474: 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

588-525: The literary language of Rome as well as to the culture and character of his contemporaries. Ennius Quintus Ennius ( Latin pronunciation: [ˈkᶣiːnt̪ʊs̺ ˈɛnːiʊs̺] ; c.  239  – c.  169 BC ) 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 ),

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616-501: The report by Maurus Servius Honoratus that he claimed descent from Messapus, 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

644-445: 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

672-414: The satirist Gaius Lucilius , and, long afterwards, to that of his imitator Persius . But, notwithstanding the attempt to introduce an alien element into the Roman language, which proved incompatible with its natural genius, and his own failure to attain the idiomatic purity of Naevius, Plautus, or Terence, the fragments of his dramas are sufficient to prove the service which he rendered to the formation of

700-520: Was born at Brundisium , which had become a Roman colony in 244 BC. Hence he never attained to that perfect idiomatic purity of style, which was the special glory of the early writers of comedy, Naevius and Plautus . Pacuvius obtained distinction also as a painter; and Pliny the Elder ( Naturalis Historia xxxv) mentions a work of his in the Temple of Hercules in the Forum Boarium . He

728-410: Was in process of formation during the 2nd century BC, and it was in the latter part of this century that the series of great Roman orators, with whose spirit Roman tragedy has a strong affinity, begins. But the new creative effort in language was accompanied by considerable crudeness of execution, and the novel word-formations and varieties of inflexion introduced by Pacuvius exposed him to the ridicule of

756-488: Was less productive as a poet than either Ennius or Accius; we hear of only twelve of his plays, founded on Greek subjects and most of them connected to the Trojan cycle ( Antiope , Armorum Judicium , Atalanta , Chryses , Dulorestes , Hermione , Iliona , Medus , Niptra , Pentheus , Periboea , and Teucer ) and one praetexta ( Paullus ) written in connection with the victory of Lucius Aemilius Paullus Macedonicus at

784-708: 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

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