Collected Fragments of Ennius

by Quintus Ennius

  Admittedly a cruel prayer, for such a death does not come without great suffering. The following lines are meaningless —

  He, set disbowelled on sharp steep rugged rocks, Hanging by his own flank and spattering The rocks with gore, with mess of black-hued blood,

  The very stones will not be freer of pain than he ‘hanging by his flank,’ for whom Thyestes thinks he is desiring torments. These would be heavy pains if he felt them; they are nothing without feeling. Then the following is utterly meaningless —

  And may he have no tomb where he may find A haven for his carcase, where that carcase, The mortal life let go, may rest from trouble.

  You see how great is the error in which all this is involved; he believes there is a ‘haven’ for the body, and that a dead man ‘rests’ in a tomb, to the great discredit of Pelops, in that he did not school his son or teach him how far everything should be a cause for anxiety.

  371–2

  Atreus has come to Thesprotus’ court; Thesprotus believes the brothers will be reconciled?:

  The author of To Herennius: There is again a fault when something is taken as decided, which is still a matter of dispute, in this way —

  Thesprotus

  Ho! See you, the gods who guide with power the busy bustle of beings that dwell above and below, they make a friendly peace among themselves and make an agreement together.

  For in this manner does Ennius stage Thesprotus as making use of this example on his own authority, as though he had already proved it by really convincing arguments.

  373

  Thesprotus makes an agreement with Atreus about Pelopia:

  Nonius: ‘Flaccet,’ pines, weakens... —

  Thesprotus But if our terms go lax, then cast her off And give her back.

  Other Plays

  Ambracia

  Ennius accompanied Marcus Fulvius Nobilior on his appointment to a command against the Aetolians, and shared in the campaign which Fulvius conducted there in 189 BC (Cic., Tusc. Disp., I, 2, 3; Brut., 20, 79; cp. pro. Arch., 11, 27). That Ennius’ work entitled Ambracia was a ‘fabula praetexta’ is probable. It was written with the object of glorifying M. Fulvius with special reference to his capture of Ambracia — quam victoriam per se magnificam Q. Ennius amicus eius insigni laude celebravit (‘Vict.,’ de Vir. Illustr., 52 M).

  374

  The dangers of the Adriatic?:

  Nonius: ‘Veget’ for ‘vegetat,’ ‘lifts up’ or ’is big.’... Ennius in Ambracia —

  ‘and thou makest the salt seas to grow big with mighty winds.’

  375

  Lawless character of the Aetolians?:

  Nonius: ‘Populat.’... —

  The naughty slaves lay waste at home their masters’ fields.

  376

  One of the Aetolians:

  Nonius: ‘Cluet,’ is called.... —

  Through all the nations was he called the wretchedest of men.

  377–8

  The campaign:

  Nonius: ‘Cunctant’ for ‘cunctantur’... —

  ‘That’s good advice of yours; then you yourself Hold back. Oh! See the valiant warrior.

  The Sabine Women

  Doubtless a ‘fabula praetexta’ on the story of the rape of the Sabines.

  379–80

  Julius Victor: Again, there is argument as to quality made from an event, so that that from which things have resulted is deemed to be of like kind as the things which have resulted from it or may seem likely to result: like the words of Ennius in The Sabine Women —

  Now that you have dragged us as spoils from our bridegrooms, what inscription will you cut upon us?

  The Little Hostess

  A comedy; but the single fragment does not even give us the title for certain.

  381

  Nonius: ‘Propitiabilis,’ ready to be propitiated. Ennius in The Little Hostess —

  Hence can the feelings be soothed.

  The All-Round Champion

  A comedy.

  382

  Nonius says: ‘Audibo’ for ‘audiam’... the same in The All-round Champion —

  A

  Where are you leading me now?

  Β

  Where you’ll hear a mighty rumble of mills.

  383

  Nonius: ‘Proterviter’... —

  Who’s that so boldly at our doors?

  384

  Nonius: ‘Desubito’... —

  when on a sudden the woman takes to praying and falls weeping at my knees.

  Unassigned Fragments of Plays

  From Tragedies

  385

  From passages connected with gods and religious things:

  Servius, on ‘integer aevi’ in Virgil: Figuratively for ‘integri aevi’; that is, a young person whose age still remains unimpaired. Whence Ennius —

  the gods untouched in age

  386

  Terence: And what a god! He who heaven’s highest precincts —

  with thunder shakes

  Donatus on this line: ‘With thunder shakes’: a parody of Ennius: ‘Heaven’s precincts’: an idea from tragedy, but put here on purpose, not by mistake.

  387

  Cicero: In dealing with a thing of this kind we must first avoid any unlikeness —

  Heaven’s huge arches.

  Although, it is said, Ennius brought a sphere on to the stage, nevertheless you cannot possibly find a likeness to an arch in a sphere.

  388

  Cicero: It is Jupiter, therefore, as I said above, who is named by Ennius in the words... more plainly too than he does in another place —

  By this that shines, whate’er it is, on him so far as in me lies I shall utter my curses —

  389

  Cicero: For sworn oath is a solemn affirmation... it has nothing to do with the wrath of the gods, which does not exist, but with justice and faith. For Ennius has a brilliant saying —

  Ο Faith, kindly wing-girt goddess; Ο thou oath sworn in Jupiter’s name!

  390–1

  Festus: ‘Sospes’... Ennius —

  Parent and native land... safe and sound.

  392–3

  II. From passages referring to warfare and fighting:

  Diomedes: ‘Homoeoteleuton’ comes about when parts of a sentence end with the same closing sound... for example, in a passage of Ennius —

  I preferred That home they should be taken, not forsaken; And shipped away, not cast away.

  394

  Varro: In a passage of Ennius —

  that they took them not thence against the will of their foes ‘perduelles’ is a term used for foes.

  395–6

  Pliny: It is clear that the Romans lived for a long time on pulse, not bread, since we speak of ‘pulmentaria’ even to-day, and Ennius, a very early archaic poet, to express the hunger of a siege, uses the words —

  Fathers snatched the morsel from their wailing children.

  397

  Nonius: ‘Caementa’... Ennius has it in the feminine —

  It totter’d, and tottered the stones, the blocks fell down.

  398

  Nonius: ‘Fretum’... in the masculine... Ennius —

  Thick rose the dust and soared over the sea of heaven.

  399

  Varro: The word ‘euax’ means nothing, but is a natural exclamation, like the one in a passage in Ennius —

  Aha! His very shield fell.

  400

  III. Philosophic and moral precepts:

  Gellius: I agreed with Neoptolemus in Ennius; he speaks as follows —

  Neoptolemus

  I must needs be a philosopher — in a few things; for in all ways — that displeases me.

  Gellius: And we must follow the counsel of that very same Neoptolemus in Ennius, of whom I wrote above; he says, ‘A man should take a taste of philosophy, and not rush to swallow her.’

  401

  Marcus Aurelius, in Fronto’s correspondence: About Herodes, I pray you go on with
what you say, and, in the words of our Quintus —

  Conquer with sturdy staunchness.

  402–3

  Cicero: In a work of Ennius —

  When one is king no partnership, no pledged word is holy.

  404

  Marcus Aurelius, in Fronto’s correspondence:... a man allied by kinship and not entrusted to a guardian; and moreover established in that rank of society in which, as Quintus Ennius has it —

  They all give empty counsel; all their deeds they do with an eye to pleasing.

  405–6

  Cicero: The wags and wits find it hard to take proper account of time and character, and as thoughts occur to them, to hold them back at the moment when they can be expressed most smartly. And so there are some jokers who give a quite shrewd explanation of this very thing. For they declare that Ennius says —

  ’Tis easier for a wise man to smother the flame of burning speech than to hold in good words;

  that is to say, those ‘good words’ which are smart.

  407

  Cicero: As for me, I think that this custom had its birth in the gymnastic schools of the Greeks: in them such love-making was free and tolerated. Rightly, therefore, does Ennius say —

  It is the beginning of disgrace to bare the body among fellow-citizens.

  408–9

  Cicero: But the diseases too of the soul are more deadly and more numerous than those of the body. For they are loathsome through the very fact that they have to do with the soul, and trouble it, and, as Ennius says —

  A sick soul is always wandering; it can neither bear troubles nor bear with them; it never ceases longing.

  410

  Cicero: But in all the world there is nothing better fitted for guarding and keeping one’ s power than to be loved, nothing more remote from this than to be feared. For brilliantly does Ennius put it —

  Whom men fear they hate; whom anyone hates he desires to be dead.

  411

  Paulus: Writers used to use ‘metus’ in the feminine. Ennius —

  Lest I live or die — there is no fear in me.

  412–14

  Cicero: But all men, it seems, have in common goods of the kind which, applied to one example only in Ennius, can be transferred so as to apply to very many —

  The man who kindly points the way to a wanderer, does as though he kindle a light from the light that is his; it shines none the less for himself when he has kindled it for his fellow.

  trib Teleph. R suae lumine accendit facis Hartman, Mnemoe., XXI, 382 fortass recte

  415

  Varro: In a passage of Ennius —

  If you will deign to turn your mind to me, kindly shall it be shown to you.

  ‘comiter’ means cheerfully and willingly.

  416

  Cicero: In dealing with persons who will want help given them... we ought by no means to be niggards towards all of them; but yet we ought to bring judgment and diligence to bear in picking out the worthy. For brilliantly does Ennius put it —

  Good deeds ill placed I think are ill deeds.

  417

  IV. Various:

  Rutilius Lupus: Diaphora. This is a figure of speech which comes about when a word by repetition takes a meaning different from that which it had at the first utterance. This is the kind of thing... again in Ennius’ line —

  a woman; what better or truer term could I use than ‘woman’?

  418

  Nonius: The old writers held it possible to assign the word ‘quis’ to the feminine gender also.... Ennius —

  and who is she girt up in a gown of mourning?

  419

  Servius, on ‘saevae’ in Virgil: The old writers used the term ‘saeva’ for ‘big.’ Thus Ennius — .

  Clothed she was in a huge gown

  420

  Festus: But the archaic writers used ‘tam’ even for ‘tamen’: for example... Ennius —

  Still he can get my good will.

  421

  Varro: ‘Humus,’ it is thought, is the same as ‘terra’; and that therefore Ennius with the words —

  They did bruise the ground with their elbows speaks of persons falling to the earth.

  422

  Festus: ‘Tesca’ is a term used of places which are marked out for augury... rough, and not easy to approach... —

  I see rough places and high ragged rocks

  423

  Servius (supplemented) on a passage in Virgil: But there are some who read ‘cui prima frementem fudit aquam’ (instead of equum) because the old writers were wont to use ‘fremitus’ for the murmuring of water. Ennius —

  The land was filled with the roar of waters.

  424–5

  Varro: That the old writers were wont to use ‘locatum’ for ‘collocatum’ appears in... Ennius —

  Ο land of Thrace, where Maro did place a renowned temple of Liber,

  426

  Aero, on ‘Though snakes fortify his head’... in Horace:

  of the snake-shaggy dog.

  From Comedies

  427

  Cicero: Well now, who would dare to say that all dreams are true? Says Ennius —

  Some dreams are true; but it does not follow that all are so.

  428

  Festus: Ateius the philologist says that ‘naucus’ is a term put for nonsense.... Ennius —

  That fellow there is a noodle, a nobody, a good-for- nothing.

  429

  Varro: In a passage of Ennius —

  Split him with shouts; reduce him to mumbles at once, all smothered.

  ‘Mumble’ is used because the dumb say no more than ‘mum.’

  430

  Diomedes: ‘Moro’ we frequently use in the form ‘moror.’... Ennius —

  Would he delay to take any gift I offer him? No, but he takes it.

  431

  Varro (on exclamations): In a passage of Ennius —

  Oh dear, my girl, that very man is in a heat of rage at you for that!

  432

  The author of To Herennius: We will avoid too frequent repetition of the same letter; for which blemish the following line will be an example... and this line of the same poet —

  Let anyone deny anyone anything, whoever meets whomever.

  Either Tragedies or Comedies

  433

  Varro: Both ‘templa’ and ‘tesca’ are derived from ‘tueor’ with the difference which I have spoken of. From the same derivation comes also the following by Ennius —

  Forthwith take and slay me and my son.

  For ‘extemplo’ means ‘without a break,’ because every ‘temple’ must be fenced round ‘without a break’ and have no more than one entrance.

  434

  Diomedes: Again, ‘adeo, adis’; we get the frequentative form of this verb by saying ‘adito,’ ‘aditas,’; for example, Ennius—’

  They kept going up to him.

  435

  Servius on ‘genis’ in Virgil: ‘Genis,’ eyelids. Ennius describes a person sleeping —

  and he presses eyelid to eyelid.

  436

  Servius (supplemented) on ‘Hastens death’ in Virgil: We must supply ‘adest’ or ‘ad’... or at any rate ‘properet mortem’ is put in archaic style as we find in... Ennius —

  They hurry the merry-making of the day

  437

  Festus: Artorius says that ‘topper’ means quickly, perhaps, swiftly, rashly.... But Sinnius writes thus: ‘topper’ in the writings of Ennius and Pacuvius has the force of ‘perhaps’; we find in a passage of Ennius —

  Whom perhaps no one knows better

  Satires

  It is a matter of doubt whether Ennius wrote four or six books of Satires; nor is it known whether any or all of Ennius’ minor works under other titles should be included in them. With regard to the number of books, Porphyrio, ad Hor., S., I, 10, 46, says that Ennius left four books of Satires. But Donatus, ad Ter. Phorm., II, 2, 25, seems to quote from a sixth book. In Porphyrio
, UII was perhaps written or misread as IIII, and even the name Ennius is not there clearly recorded; or in Donatus IV was read or miscopied as VI. With regard to certain minor works, it is possible that the work Scipio cited by several authors (see below) is the title of the third book of the Satires, to which the frs. of Scipio would thus belong. I would point out that only Nonius quotes from Satires Bk. III, and he never quotes from Scipio. But in view of Gellius, VI, 9, 1, etc., and IV, 7, 2 (quoted below), we must separate Scipio from the Satires. We can see that the Satires were written in a variety of metres; that they included dialogues and fables; that some of them had a direct and censorious bearing on public morals and politics; and that Ennius claimed to write in a free conversational and light-hearted manner. It seems that, the old native drama satura having been replaced by Greek plays, Ennius invented here a new form of literature which preserved some of the essential spirit of the earlier type. F. Delia Corte, Atti d. r. Accad. di Scienze di Torino, LXXI, 198 ff. thinks ‘Saturae’ is a post-Ennian title for Ennius’ minor poems.