Quintus Ennius

Early Roman poet. Born 239 BCE, died 169 BCE.

Ennius was born in Southern Italy, but served in the Roman Army, and came to Rome in 204 BCE, together with Cato the Elder. In Rome, he taught Greek and mingled with the upper levels of society, befriending Scipio the Elder.

He wrote poems in various genres, as well as tragedies (some original, some adaptations of Greek works). Most famous is historical epic, Annales, the first Roman hexameter poem, clearly inspired by Homer. In 18 volumes, Annales dealt with the history of Rome from Aeneas' arrival to Ennius' own time.

Ennius had a great influence on later Roman literature and poetry. Until Vergil wrote the Aeneid, around 20 BCE, Ennius' Annales was the accepted national epic of the Romans. His poems were devotedly studied in the Roman schools, and Cicero admired and quoted from them. Poets such as Catullus, Ovid, and Horace deliberately distanced themselves from Ennius' style, which they considered ponderous and old-fashioned.

Today, Ennius' works are only preserved in fragments.

Strangely enough, Ennius once penned a character sketch (from a fragment of the orginal work, probably preserved in Cicero's writing) of the perfect noder:
or was it the ideal Roman? Whatever.

“…a learned, trusty, winsome man and a fine talker,
content with his own, happy and shrewd;
one who spoke the right thing at the right time,
and obliging; of few words;
keeping many old-time ways of which a bygone age
long buried is the maker,
and manners old and new;
keeping also to the modes of many a one of our elders,
and the laws too of gods and men;
one who could prudently speak out hearsay or keep it to himself.”

And you thought the Classics had nothing left to teach us. (Translation by E. H. Warmington)