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1. Tragedies.—Of those founded on mythology we have fragments of twenty-two, eight at least of which were borrowed from Euripides. The Auct. ad Herenn. ii. 34, quotes nine lines which are a literal translation of the beginning of the Medea. The date of the Thyestes, B.C. 169, is the only one known (Cic. Brut. 78, quoted p. 28). Besides these, Ennius probably wrote a praetexta on ‘the Rape of the Sabines’; and his Ambracia is probably a praetexta on the capture of the town by M. Fulvius Nobilior in B.C. 189 (L. Müller includes it in the Saturae).

2. Comedies.—There are very slight fragments of the Cupuncula and the Pancratiastes.

3. Saturae.—A miscellaneous collection of poems.

Porphyr. ad Hor. Sat. i. 10, 47, ‘Ennius quattuor libros saturarum reliquit.’

The reference in Hor. Sat. i. 10, 66,

‘Quam rudis et Graecis intacti carminis auctor,’

is not to Ennius, as some have supposed, but to the inventor of satura, whoever he may have been.

The Saturae include (a) Scipio, probably a short epic. It was mostly written in trochaic septenarii. (b) Epicharmus (in trochaic tetrameters), dealing with Pythagoreanism in the department of physics. (c) Euhemerus or Sacra Historia, modelled on Euhemerus’ ἱερὰ ἀναγραφή,[16] the doctrines of which were applied to the religion of Rome.

Cic. N.D. i. 119, ‘Euhemerus, quem noster et interpretatus et secutus est praeter ceteros Ennius.’

(d) Protreptica or Praecepta, containing moral maxims. (e) Hedyphagetica, ‘On Gastronomy,’ modelled on a hexameter poem by Archestratus (about B.C. 310). (f) Sota, so called from Σωτάδης, after whom the Sotadean metre has been named. The book was probably of a lascivious nature. (g) Epigrams; the chief of which are mentioned above.

4. The Annales, an epic poem in hexameters, which dealt with the history of Rome down to the beginning of the Third Macedonian War. It contained eighteen Books; there are about six hundred lines extant. The following is a sketch of the contents:

Book i., from Aeneas to the death of Romulus; ii., reigns of Numa Pompilius, Tullus Hostilius, Ancus Martius; iii., the last three kings; iv.-v., the republic down to the war with Pyrrhus; vi., the war with Pyrrhus; vii., First Punic War, etc.; viii.-ix., Second Punic War; x.-xii., Second Macedonian War, Cato’s consulship; xiii.-xv., War with Antiochus, subjugation of the Aetolians; xvi.-xviii., from Istrian War to beginning of Third Macedonian War.

Ennius’ services to Latin literature lay partly in introducing the use of the hexameter and other metres from Greek in place of the old Saturnian metre. His versification is, of course, rough in comparison with that of later writers, the principal points being

(1) Harsh elisions. Ann. l. 199,

‘Hos et ego in pugna vici victusque sum ab isdem.’

(2) Quadrisyllable endings; l. 23,

‘Est locus Hesperiam quam mortales perhibebant.’

(3) Absence of caesura, or abrupt break, l. 188,

‘Bellipotentes sunt magis quam sapientipotentes’;

l. 511,

‘Cui par imber et ignis, spiritus et gravis terra.’

(4) Omission of -s in scansion, as in the last two examples.

(5) Short vowels sometimes lengthened; l. 86,

‘Omnibus cura viris uter esset induperator.’

(6) Prosaic lines (often spondaic); l. 34,

‘Olli respondit rex Albai longai’;

l. 174,

‘Cives Romani tunc facti sunt Campani.’

(7) Harsh instances of tmesis; l. 586,

‘Saxo cere comminuit brum’:

l. 605,

‘Massili portabant iuvenes ad litora tanas.’

(8) Apocope; l. 451

‘replet te laetificum gau’;

l. 561,

‘divom domus altisonum cael’;

l. 563,

‘endo suam do’ (= in suam domum).

(9) Alliteration used freely; l. 113,

‘O Tite tute Tati tibi tanta tiranne tulisti’;

l. 452,

‘At tuba terribili sonitu taratantara dixit.’

(10) Non-elision; l. 275,

‘Miscent inter sese inimicitiam agitantes.’

Influence of Ennius.—This is seen in Lucretius, and to a very great extent in Virgil. For Lucretius’ appreciation of Ennius see Lucr. i. 117–9. Cf. also Ann. l. 150,

‘Postquam lumina sis oculis bonus Ancus reliquit,’

and Lucr. iii. 1025,

‘Lumina sis oculis etiam bonus Ancus reliquit.’

Servius on Verg. Aen. viii. 630–4, says ‘Sane totus hic locus Ennianus est.’ Cf. Servius also on Aen. i. 20; xi. 608, etc. A large number of imitations are quoted by Macrobius, especially in Saturn. Book vi. Virgil modified and refined many of Ennius’ rough expressions. Thus Ann. l. 452 (above quoted), becomes, in Verg. Aen. ix. 503,

‘At tuba terribilem sonitum procul aere sonoro

increpuit’;

Ann. l. 464,

‘irarumque effunde quadrigas’

becomes in Verg. Aen. xii. 499,

‘irarumque omnes effundit habenas.’

Views on Ennius.—A very few of these may be quoted. Lucr. i. 117–9,

‘Ennius ut noster cecinit qui primus amoeno

detulit ex Helicone perenni fronde coronam,

per gentes Italas hominum quae clara clueret.’

Cic. Opt. Gen. Or. 2, ‘Licet dicere Ennium summum epicum poetam, si cui ita videtur.’ Hor. Ep. ii. 1, 50,

‘Ennius et sapiens et fortis et alter Homerus,

ut critici dicunt, leviter curare videtur

quo promissa cadant et somnia Pythagorea.’

Propert. v. 1, 61,

‘Ennius hirsuta cingat sua dicta corona.’

Quint. x. 1, 88, ‘Ennium sicut sacros vetustate lucos adoremus, in quibus grandia et antiqua robora iam non tantam habent speciem quantam religionem.’