Collected Fragments of Ennius

by Quintus Ennius

  Book I

  1

  A glutton:

  Nonius: ‘Convivant’ for ‘convivantur.’... Ennius in Book I of the Satires —

  Let him be one of the guzzlers without limit, and, by god, may he be utterly damned for it!

  2

  Giving:

  Nonius: ‘Celere’ for ‘celeriter’... —

  So long as whatever you give it is done quickly.

  Book II

  3–4

  Servius (supplemented), on ‘pilata’ in Virgil: ‘Pilata,’ fixed and standing steady.... Ennius in Book II of the Satires —

  From that place I gaze on the piled spaces of the ether,

  where he meant ‘firm and standing steady,’ as it were supported by ‘pilae.’

  5

  Busybodies:

  Nonius: ‘Obstringillare,’ to stand in the way... —

  They loiter and run to meet you, they hinder and hamper and harass you.

  Book III

  6–7

  Nonius: ‘Propinare’ is derived from the Greek; it means to hand on after drinking.... Ennius in Book III of the Satires —

  Your health, poet Ennius, who pass to mortal men a cup of flaming verses drawn from your very marrow!

  8–9

  Nonius: ‘Criminat’... —

  For no well-wisher of yours is he who spreads slanders in your family.

  10–11

  Benefits conferred by Scipio?:

  Nonius: ‘Politiones’ means zealous cultivation of fields; even so we call ‘polita’ all things that are carefully worked and brought up to brilliance... —

  The broad plains which the land of Africa bears in neat tillage are witnesses.

  Book IV

  12–13

  Habits of the refined?:

  Macrobius: ‘Tristis’ is a neat figure of speech for ‘amarus,’ like ‘harsh lupine’ (Virg., G., I, 75). Ana so also Ennius in the fourth book of the Satires —

  He seeks and yearns neither for harsh mustard nor for the weepy onion.

  Unplaced Fragments from the Satires

  14–19

  A parasite:

  Donatus on ‘The idea of your coming scot-free’ in Terence: All this is taken not from Apollodorus but from the fourth (?) book of Ennius’ Satires —

  Why, when you come along without a care in the world, gaily spick and span, your cheeks unstuffed, your arm bared ready, tripping a-tip-toe, waiting all taut like a wolf — when next you are lapping up another’s goods, in what mind, think you, is your host? He’s down in the dumps, God’s truth, while he lays up a store of vittles and you gobble it with a grin.

  In trochaic metre.

  A complete (?) Satire on Aesop’s fable ‘The crested Lark and its Chicks.’

  20

  On the flute-player who tried to catch sea-fish by piping to them.

  Festus: ‘Subulo’ is a Tuscan term for a flute-player; and so we have in Ennius —

  A piper once stood near the regions of the sea.

  II. In iambic metre.

  21

  Ennius and his Satires:

  Priscianus: We also have had in use the verbs ‘philosophor,’ ‘architector,’ ‘poetor.’ Ennius —

  I never indulge in poetics Unless I am down with rheumatics.

  22

  His indifference:

  Gellius: Quintus Ennius in the Satires used ‘memorderit’ with the letter e, not momorderit. He says —

  It’s not my way, as if a dog has bitten me.

  III. In hexameters.

  23

  Cicero: But that very resemblance which takes your fancy so very much — how utterly beside the point it is! Why, does not a dog look like a wolf? And again, as Ennius has it —

  That ugly beast the ape’s the very spit of us!

  But in both the habits are different.

  24

  Beginning of a fable?:

  Paulus:... Ennius... when he says —

  Hard by the pools where the woolly tribe feeds on fishes,

  he illustrates the existence of a swamp in which are bred fishes looking like ‘froglets’ which sheep hunt out and eat.

  25–6

  Gold-mining of the Arimaspi in Scythia:

  Varro: In a passage of Ennius —

  ten nuggets which the One-Eyed have mined on the Ripaean mountain-tops,

  ‘codes,’ as it were ‘odes,’ was derived from ‘oculus,’ ‘codes’ meaning a man having one eye.

  27

  Ill-natured critics:

  Festus: ‘Scirpus’ is that smooth tall plant which grows in marshy places and from which mats are made. From this rose the proverb which is applied to things which present no hindrance— ‘to look for a knot in a bulrush.’ Ennius —

  As the common saying goes, they are seeking a knot in a bulrush.

  IV. In Saturnian metre.

  28–31

  On cheating:

  Gellius: I remember that not long ago we put questions seven in number, of which the first was an explanation of those lines in the Satires of Quintus Ennius, which are deftly tangled up with one word used in a number of different phrases. They read as follows —

  For he who wants to be smart and trick his fellow, is tricked when he says the other whom he tricks is tricked. For he who is tricked into feeling that he is tricking someone, the tricker is tricked if the other is not tricked.

  V. Unknown.

  A dialogue between Life and Death:

  Quintilian: But we often enough personify the abstract, as Ennius does in one of his Satires where he represents Death and Life wrangling with each other.

  Scipio

  This poem (probably not to be taken either as a drama or as the third book of the Satires or as part of it — see ) celebrated the African campaigns of Ennius’ friend Scipio Africanus, in which Scipio brought the second Punic War to a close with the battle of Zama in 202 BC I have not adopted Vahlen’s order, because it seems to me natural that in the poem the description of the campaign should come before the description of Scipio’s reception by the Roman people.

  Prelude.

  Scipio is worthy of the greatest of poets:

  Suidas: Ennius, a Roman poet whom Aelian states to be worthy of praise. For, in a poem of praise on Scipio, with the desire of extolling his hero he says that ‘Homer alone could utter praises worthy of Scipio.’

  II. Scipio’s African campaigns described in varying metres to suit either slow or rapid action.

  1–4

  The calm crossing to Africa:

  Macrobius, on Virgil’s verses about the calm caused by Jupiter speaking: Ennius in Scipio —

  The vast firmament of heaven stood still in silence, and wild Neptune gave rest to his rough billows, Sun checked the charge of his horses’ winged hoofs, the ever-flowing rivers stood still, and the trees were void of wind.

  5

  Scipio pitches his camp close to Hannibal:

  Gellius: It is from Ennius alone that Probus cites a line, and only one, from the book entitled Scipio. I have given this line below, written in eight-footed rhythm; in this line, unless the third syllable of the genitive of the name ‘Hannibal’ is spoken with a circumflex ‘Hannibalis,’ the rhythm is bound to halt. The line of Ennius which he quoted is as follows —

  where near Hannibal’s host he had made his camp.

  6

  A battle:

  Macrobius, on ‘the plain bristles with spears’ in Virgil: ‘Horret’ is a very strange term. But Ennius also has... in Scipio —

  The plain gleams and bristles with long spears all over it.

  III. After the victory, the Roman people offer great honours to Scipio:

  7

  Cicero: We do not allow ourselves to leave a hiatus even if we may wish;... all the poets point this way to us... except those who used many a time to allow a hiatus in order to make a line... Ennius often does it —

  Ο Scipio unconquered

  8–9

  The
people offer him a perpetual dictatorship or consulship:

  Paulus: ‘Vel’ is a connecting particle which is disjunctive... and parts those things which are not opposites, and of which it does not matter which you choose; for example, Ennius has —

  ‘Be you dictator or master of the horse and horsemen, or be you consul.’

  10–11

  They desire to set up statues of him:

  Trebellius Pollio: What sort of reward for so great a victory, I ask you, is a shield in the senate-house or a golden statue? Ennius says of Scipio —

  How great a statue, how great a pillar, will the Roman people make, such as will tell of your great deeds?

  IV. Scipio refuses all these honours:

  12–14

  Cicero: Well then, bodily pleasures flow away; each in turn fades and leaves oftener cause for repentance than for remembrance. The happier therefore was Africanus when he was conversing with his fatherland in the following fashion —

  ‘Rome, cease you your foes to fear

  and the rest, a brilliant speech —

  ‘since bulwarks for you have my toils begotten.

  Cicero: For the sake of adornment one proper name is exchanged for another... —

  ‘The Great Plains are witnesses.

  Epigrams (Epitaphs)

  On Scipio Africanus:

  1–2

  Cicero: In some life or other there is something worthy to be praised and boasted of and shown in full view; for example... Africanus —

  From the rising of the sun above the marshes of Maeotis comes no one whose deeds could balance his.

  3–4

  Lactantius: If anyone has cut even one man’s throat he is held to be polluted and loathsome... but he who has butchered men in thousands without end... is received not only into a temple but even into heaven. In a passage of Ennius, Africanus speaks in this way —

  If it is right for anyone to go up into the regions of heaven’s dwellers, for me alone heaven’s great gate lies open.

  5–6

  Cicero: Sulla was the first of those Cornelii who were patricians to see fit that his corpse should be burnt. Now Ennius has a statement about Africanus —

  Here lies the man truly so; for ‘lies’ is a term applied to those who have been buried in a grave.

  Seneca: And then the scholar collects verses of Ennius, especially those written about Africanus —

  to whom no one, fellow-countryman or foeman, will be able to render for his pains a recompense fitting his services.

  From this the scholar states he understands that in works of archaic writers ‘ops’ meant not only help but efforts; for what Ennius means is that no one, neither countryman nor foeman, was able to render Scipio a recompense for his efforts.

  II. On Ennius himself.

  7–10

  For his portrait; (b) for his sepulchre:

  Cicero: Why, do not poets wish to be made famous after death? Well then, hence arises the famous —

  Look, ye citizens, on the portrait of Ennius in his old age.’Twas he painted the doughtiest deeds of your fathers.

  He demands a guerdon of glory from those whose fathers he had endowed with glory. And the same poet has —

  Let none embellish me with tears, Or make a funeral with wailing; And why? Alive from lips to lips of men I go a-winging.

  Other Poems

  Sotas

  This title was probably one given by Ennius to some poem of Sotades (a coarse poet of the third century BC) which he translated. Sota would correspond with Σωτᾶς a shortened form of Σωτάδης.

  1

  On cattle of Cyprus:

  Paulus: When Ennius in a Sotadic line used the phrases —

  lunch for an ox of Cyprus

  he referred to what often happens in the island of Cyprus, where the kine are pastured on human dung.

  2

  Wanton living:

  Varro: From ‘vinctura’ is derived ‘vieri’ which means ‘vinciri.’ Hence it is we have in Ennius’ Sotas —

  They were going along to plait a little love-garland — the lechers!

  3

  Ambitions of men; the would-be mariner:

  Festus: By ‘tonsa’ Ennius means oar, because it as it were ‘tondetur’ with a knife, when he says... in Sotas —

  One man wishes to hold a trimmer on the mighty main

  4

  Would-be orators:

  Paulus: ‘Tongere’ means to know, for the Praenestines use the term ‘tongitio’ to express knowing. Ennius —

  Others ken well the rules of rhetoric.

  5

  A comic scene?:

  A grammarian: Ionic ‘a maiore’ —

  Punched he fell back again square on his bum.

  This line has a fault in the third syllable.

  Delikatessen

  Whether this be the true title or not, it is certain that Ennius wrote a poem on tit-bits based on a mock-heroic poem of Archestratus of Gela (fourth cent. BC), which is quoted under various titles. The single surviving fragment of Ennius’ version is quoted by Apuleius from the part dealing with fish and other sea-animals. He quoted from memory and could remember only a few lines; the corresponding fragments of Archestratus given opposite suggest that Apuleius left out some lines. Some of the readings are very uncertain, and there are irregularities in the metre.

  1–11

  Apuleius: Quintus Ennius wrote on delikatessen. He enumerated countless kinds of fish with which no doubt he was acquainted as a connoisseur. I remember a few lines and will give them here —

  How the sea-weasel from Clupea beats all others! There are mussels at Aenus and scaly oysters in great plenty at Abydus.... The scallop is at Mitylene and in the channel of Ambracia. The sargue is fine at Brundisium — buy it if it’s big. Know that the little boar-fish can be had first-rate at Tarentum. Make sure it’s at Surrentum that you purchase your sturgeon, and from Cumae your blue shark. What of the parrot-wrasse? I overlooked that! It’s almost the very brain of all-highest Jupiter! This fellow is caught big and fine by Nestor’s land. And I overlooked the oblade, the wrasse, the sea-merle, the maigre. At Corcyra men catch the octopus, fat flounders, sea-perch, the purple and the little purple-fish, file-fish and sweet urchins too.

  He honoured others also with many verses and told in what part of the world each of them is to be found, and in what condition, fried or stewed, each tastes best. And still he is not brought to task by the experts.

  Epicharmus

  Ennius probably based this didactic poem on a separate work of the Greek philosopher-poet (or on one which passed for his) about nature and the four elements. Cf. V., CCXVIII ff., XXXVII ff. Epicharmus of Cos (c. 540–450 BC) dwelt at Syracuse and wrote two kinds of comedies: mythological travesties, and plays dealing with different classes of people at Syracuse. The dramas were noted for their pithy philosophic sayings, but we have no tradition that he wrote a definite work on philosophy. For an echo of this work of Ennius in the Annals, see p–7.

  1

  Prelude:

  Cicero: Surely you do not believe that Ennius, when he had walked in the gardens with his neighbour Servius Galba, said ‘Methought to myself I was walking with Galba?’ But when he had dreamed, he related as follows... in Epicharmus —

  For I thought in a dream that I was dead.

  2

  Nature’s working:

  Varro: From a union of these (sc. of cold with heat and of dryness with moisture), sky and earth gave birth to all things from their own stuff, for it is through these that nature —

  mingles heat with cold, and dryness with moisture.

  3

  Beginnings of the Universe:

  Varro, on tillage: The first beginnings of it are the same as those which, according to what Ennius writes, are the first beginnings of the universe —

  Water, earth, air, sun.

  4–6

  Earth:

  Varro: Ops is Earth, because herein lies all ‘opus,’ and ther
e is ‘opus’ (need) of this in order to live; and Ops is named ‘mother’ because earth is ‘mother.’ For she it is who —

  gave birth to all races on earth and takes them back again;

  who —

  bestows food-stores,

  as Ennius says; who is also —

  Ceres, because she gets us crops;

  for among the archaic writers c was put for what is now g.

  7

  Soul:

  Priscianus: We find ‘amentis’ nom. masc. and fem., and ‘amente’ nom. sing. neut. This is not surprising, since Ennius in Epicharmus uses the form ‘mentis’ as the nominative, instead of ‘mens,’ even in the non-compound —

  Body is earth, but soul is fire