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1. Tragedies.—There are extant seven titles and a very few fragments.

2. Comedies.—There are titles of about thirty-four palliatae,[4] and upwards of one hundred and thirty lines extant.

Naevius seems to have adopted contaminatio[5] in his plays. Ter. Andr. prol. 15,

‘Id isti vituperant factum atque in eo disputant

contaminari non decere fabulas …

qui quom hunc accusant, Naevium Plautum Ennium

accusant.’

3. Praetextae.—Tragedies on Roman subjects, ‘Clastidium’ and ‘Romulus.’ The praetexta was invented by Naevius.

4. Bellum Punicum, an epic poem in Saturnians, divided later into seven Books. About seventy-four lines are extant.

Sueton. Gramm. 2, ‘C. Octavius Lampadio Naevii Punicum bellum, uno volumine et continenti scriptura expositum, divisit in septem libros.’

Books i. and ii. contained the mythical origin of Rome and Carthage, Aeneas’ flight from Troy and his sojourn at the court of Dido in Carthage. In Book iii. the history of the First Punic War commenced. The work was imitated by Ennius and Virgil, sometimes closely by the latter. Cf. Servius on Aen. i. 198–207, ‘O socii,’ etc. ‘Et totus hic locus de Naevio belli Punici libro translatus est.’ Ibid. i. 273, ‘Naevius et Ennius Aeneae ex filia nepotem Romulum conditorem urbis tradunt.’

Macrob. Saturn. vi. 2, 31, ‘In principio Aeneidos tempestas describitur et Venus apud Iovem queritur. … Hic locus totus sumptus a Naevio est ex primo libro belli Punici.’