Collected Fragments of Ennius

by Quintus Ennius

  Multa foro ponit et agea longa repletur.

  533

  Isidorus: ‘Agea’ means the footways, the spaces in a ship along which the boatswain approaches the rowers; on this Ennius has —

  Many wares he put in the gangway; and the long passage was filled full.

  534–5

  Servius (auctus) ad Georg., I, 12: Cui prima frementem | fudit equum (... tellus).’ Nonnulli vero.. . ‘cui prima frementem | fudit aquam’ legunt, quod veteres murmura aquae fremitum dicebant. Ennius.. . —

  ratibusque fremebat imber Neptuni.

  Cp. Serv. auct., ad Aen.. XI, 299.

  534–5

  Servius (supplemented), on ‘At whose bidding the Earth first gave birth to the neighing horse’ in Virgil:... But some read ‘cui prima frementem | fudit aquam,’ because old writers used the term ‘fremitus’ for the roaring of water. Ennius... —

  and Neptune’s water roared with ships.

  536

  Servius ad Aen.,VI, 705 (Lethaeumque domos placidas qui praenatat amnem): ‘Praenatat,’ praeterfluit... . Ennium igitur secutus est qui ait —

  fluctusque natantes

  536

  Servius, on ‘and the river of Lethe which floats in front of the peaceful dwellings’ in Virgil: ‘Praenatat,’ flows by. Thus it was Ennius whom he followed, who says —

  and floating billows

  537

  Servius (auctus), ad Aen., IX, 327: ‘Temere’ significat sine causa. Ennius —

  ‘Haud temere est quod tu tristi cum corde gubernas.

  Cp. Aen., VI, 185 tristi cum corde volutat.

  537

  Servius (supplemented): ‘Temere’ means without cause. Ennius —

  ‘No chance is it that you steer sad at heart.

  538

  Isidorus, Orig., XIX, 2, 12: ‘Clavus’ est quo regitur gubernaculum; de quo Ennius —

  ‘dum clavum rectum teneam navemque gubernem.

  Cp. Quintil., II, 17, 24.

  538

  Isidorus: ‘Clavus’ is that by which a rudder is guided; on this Ennius has —

  ‘so long as I hold tiller straight and steer the ship.

  539

  Isidorus, Orig., XIX, 2, 14: ‘Tonsilla’ uncinus ferreus vel ligneus ad quem in litore defixum funes navium illigantur, de quo Ennius —

  Tonsillas apiunt configunt litus aduncas.

  539

  Isidorus: ‘Tonsilla,’ an iron or wooden hook to which, when it is fixed on the shore, ships’ hawsers are tied; on this Ennius has —

  They transpierced the beach and tied up the hooked mooring-stakes.

  540

  Servius, ad Aen., VI, 545: ‘Explebo numerum’.. . ‘explebo’ est ‘minuam.’ Nam ait Ennius —

  navibus explebant sese terrasque replebant.

  540

  Servius: ‘Explebo numerum.’... ‘Explebo’ means I will diminish, for Ennius says —

  They unfilled themselves from the ships and filled up the land.

  541

  Schol. Veron., ad Aen.,V, 241 (Et pater ipse manu magna Portunus euntem | impulit): Ennius —

  atque manu magna Romanos inpulit amnis.

  Homer., Il., XV, 694–5: τὸν δὲ Ζεὺς ὦσεν ὄπισθε | χειρὶ μάλα μεγάλῃ.

  541

  A Scholiast, on Virgil’s ‘And father Portunus himself with mighty hand drove him on his way’: Ennius —

  and with mighty hand the river drove the Romans on.

  542

  Gellius, VII, 6, 2: Cur autem non Q. quoque Ennium reprehendit (lulius Hyginus) qui in Annalibus non pennas Daedali sed longe diversius —

  Brundisium pulchro praecinctum praepete portu

  Cp. Gell., IX, 4,1.

  542

  Gellius: Furthermore, why does he (Julius Hyginus) not call to task Quintus Ennius also, who in the Annals uses ‘praepes’ not of the wings of Daedalus, but of something quite different —

  Brundisium belted by a beautiful fair haven

  543

  Porphyrio, ad Hor., S., I,10, 30: ‘Canusini more (bilinguis).’ Bilinguis dicitur quoniam utraque lingua usi sunt... . Ideo ergo et Ennius et Lucilius —

  Bruttace bilingui

  dixerunt. Cp. Paul., ex F. 25, 21.

  s iocatus videtur.. . et alibi —

  Inde Parum<....... . ul>ulabant.

  543

  Porphyrio, on ‘speaking two tongues like a man of Canusium’ in Horace: ‘Bilinguis’ is the term used because the Canusians used both languages (Greek and Oscan).... On that account therefore both Ennius and Lucilius wrote —

  a Bruttian speaking two languages

  544

  Festus, 400, 29: . . . Ennius iocatus videtur . . . et alibi —

  Inde Parum<. . . . . . . . ul>ulabant.

  544

  Festus:... Ennius seems to have jested... and elsewhere —

  Thence... Paros... were wailing.

  545

  Consentius, ap. G.L., V, 400, 4 K: Poetae faciunt metaplasmos cum ipsi iam scripturam relinquunt corruptam... . Ennius —

  huic statuam statui maiorum obatus Athenis;

  ... per metaplasmum dempsit litteram r.

  545

  Consentius: Poets make metaplasms when they of set purpose leave a wrong spelling uncorrected.... Ennius —

  To him of my forefathers did I raise in my bereave ment a statue at Athens;

  ... by a metaplasm he has taken away (from orbatus?) the letter r.

  546

  Cicero, Tusc. Disp., I, 20, 45: Etenim si nunc aliquid adsequi se putant, qui ostium Ponti viderunt et eas angustias per quas penetravit ea quae est nominata Argo... . (Enn. Med., 257–8) aut ii qui Oceani freta illa viderunt —

  Europam Libyamque rapax ubi dividit unda.

  quod tandem spectaculum fore putamus cum totam terram contueri licebit?

  Cp. Cic, de Nat. Deor., III, 10, 24.

  suppl. Ilberg
  m.

  M (et alt. m. superscript.) maiorum abitratu (= arbitratu) Buttmann maiorem horto (= hortor) auream ahenis L magis mansuram auguro ahenis Ilberg obatus (fortasse maiorem obatus) W maiorem etiam arbitro ahenis Mariotti. qui ‘Scip.’ trib.

  546

  Cicero: For if now men who have seen the gate of the Black Sea and the narrows through which passed the ship which was called Argo...(Ennius, Medea)... or those who saw the familiar straits of the Ocean —

  where the greedy wave parts Europe and Libya,

  think they have achieved something, whatever kind of spectacle think we it will be when we shall be allowed to gaze on the whole earth?

  Miscellaneous.

  547–8

  Vergilius, Georg., II, 42–44: —

  Non ego cuncta meis amplecti versibus opto, non mihi si linguae centum sint oraque centum, ferrea vox.

  Schol. Bern. ad 43: ‘Non mihi’ et reliqua. Homericus sensus; sic nam et Ennius —

  Non si, lingua loqui saperet quibus, ora decem sint, innumerum, ferro cor sit pectusque revinctum,

  Il., II, 487–9:

  πληθὺν δ᾿ οὐκ ἂν ἐγὼ μυθήσομαι οὐδ᾿ ὀνομήνω, οὐδ᾿ εἴ μοι δέκα μὲν γλῶσσαι δέκα δὲ στόματ᾿ εἶεν φωνὴ δ᾿ ἄρρηκτος, χάλκεον δέ μοι ἦτορ ἐνείη.

  Cp. Host., ap. Macrob., S., VI, 3, 6; Ov., Met., VIII, 533; Fast., II, 119; Trist., I, 5, 53; Sil., IV, 525 ff.; Vergil., Aen., VI, 625, al.

  547–8

  Virgil says:

  Not all of it do I ask to embrace in my verses; not if I were to have a hundred tongues and a hundred mouths and a voice of iron.

  A scholiast on this passage: ‘not if I’ and the rest; the idea is taken from Homer. And thus also writes Ennius —

  Not if I were to have ten mouths with which my tongue could have skill to speak words without number, and my heart and breast were fast bound in iro
n,

  Homer has:

  The common sort I could not number or name; no, not even if I were to have ten tongues and ten mouths and a voice that none might break, and a heart of bronze within me.

  549

  Augustin., Ep., 231, 3: Ego autem quod ait Ennius —

  Omnes mortales sese laudarier optant

  partim puto approbandum partim cavendum.

  Cp. Augustin., de Trin., XIII, 3, 6.

  549

  Augustine: But for my part I think that the remark of Ennius —

  All mortal men long to be themselves acclaimed

  should be partly approved of and partly avoided.

  550

  Servius, ad Aen., XII, 499 (Saevam nullo discrimine caedem I suscitat irarumque omnes effundit habenas).’Irarum habenas’.. . hic moderate locutus est, nam Ennius ait —

  irarum effunde quadrigas.

  550

  Servius, on Virgil’s ‘He wakened cruel slaughter that spared none, and let loose all the reins of wrath’; ‘The reins of wrath’... here he used a moderate expression, for Ennius says —

  Let chariots of wrathfulness loose like a flood.

  551

  ‘Macrobius,’ ap. G.L., V, 651, 35 K: ‘Eructo’.. . est a verbo erugit. Ennius —

  Contempsit fontes quibus exerugit aquae vis.

  Cp. op. cit., 626, 21.

  551

  Macrobius: ‘Eructo’... is derived from a verb ‘erugit.’ Ennius —

  He scorned the springs whence spirts out a rush of water.

  552

  Servius, ad Aen., IX, 163 —

  vertunt crateras ahenos;

  potantes exhauriunt; et est hemistichium Ennianum.

  552

  Servius, on a passage in Virgil: —

  They tilted up the brazen bowls;

  they drained at a draught; it is also a half-line of Ennius.

  553

  Gellius, III, 14, 4: Varro.. . disserit ac dividit subtilissime, quid dimidium dimidiato intersit, et Q. Ennium scienter hoc in Annalibus dixisse ait —

  Sicuti si quis ferat vas vini dimidiatum,

  Pars quae deest ei vaso non ‘dimidiata’ dicenda est sed ‘dimidia.’

  553

  Gellius: Varro... discusses and distinguishes most acutely the difference between ‘a half’ and ‘halved’; and he says that Quintus Ennius in the Annals was wise when he wrote —

  Just as if a man were to bring a halved beaker of wine,

  The missing part of that beaker should be spoken of as ‘half,’ not ‘halved.’

  554

  Festus, 574, 1: (de veneno) * * * cuius color inficiendo mutatur, ut Ennius cum ait —

  ... quom illud ‘quo iam semel est imbuta veneno’.. .

  554

  Festus (on poison):... whose colour is changed by adulteration, for example Ennius when he says —

  When that proverb ‘by the poison with which it has now but once been imbued’...

  555

  Festus, 426, 33: ‘Solum,’ terram. Ennius.. . —

  sed sola terrarum postquam permensa parumper,

  Cp. Varr., L.L., V, 22.

  555

  Festus: ‘Solum,’ earth. Ennius... —

  But when she had passed swiftly over the fields of Earth,

  556

  Charisius, ap. G.L., I, 141, 24 K: ‘Partum’.. . Ennius —

  iamque fere quattuor partum.. .

  556

  Charisius says: ‘Partum’... Ennius —

  and by then almost of four parts...

  557

  Isidorus, de Nat. Rer., XII, 3: Partes autem eius (sc. caeli) haec sunt: cohus axis cardines convexa poli hemisphaeria. ‘Cohus ‘quod caelum continet. Unde Ennius —

  vix solum complere cohum terroribus caeli.

  557

  Isidorus: And the parts of the sky are the hollow, the axis, the hinges, the vaults, the poles, and the hemispheres; ‘hollow’ is so called because it ‘holds’ the sky. Whence Ennius —

  hardly to fill with terrors the hollow alone of the sky.

  558

  Isidorus, Orig., XVIII, 36, 3: Ideo rotis quadrigas currere dicunt sive quia mundus iste circuli sui celeritate transcurrit sive propter solem quia volubili ambitu rotat, sicut ait Ennius —

  Inde patefecit radiis rota candida caelum.

  Serv., ad Aen.,VI, 748 (mille) rotam volvere per annos.. . est autem sermo Ennii.

  558

  Isidorus: They say that teams of four ‘run’ on ‘wheels’ because this our universe ‘runs’ out its course through the swiftness of its orbit, or because of the sun, since it ‘wheels’ in a circular revolution; thus Ennius says —

  Then the white wheel laid open the sky with its rays.

  Servius, on Virgil’s ‘they have rolled the wheel through a thousand years’:... and further this expression is Ennian.

  559

  Priscianus, ap. G.L., II, 170, 6K: ‘Iubar’ quoque tam masculinum quam neutrum proferebant. Ennius in Annalibus —

  Interea fugit albus iubar Hyperionis cursum.

  559

  Priscianus: ‘Iubar’ also they used to inflect both as a masculine and as a neuter noun. Ennius in the Annals —

  Meanwhile the white brilliance of Hyperion sped away on its course.

  560

  Servius, ad Aen., XII, 115: (116 lucemque elatis naribus efflant) . . . Ennianus versus est ordine commutato. Ille enim ait —

  funduntque elatis naribus lucem.

  Cp. Mar. Victorin., ap. G.L., VI, 28, 7 K (efflantque), Sil., V, 56.

  560

  Servius on Virgil’s: ‘And from uplifted nostrils they send out breaths of light’: This is a line of Ennius with a change in the order of words. For that poet says —

  And they pour out a flood of light from nostrils uplifted.

  561

  Servius, ad Aen., I, 51 (Loca feta furentibus austris): ‘Austris.’ Figura est celebrata apud Vergilium et est species pro genere. Legerat apud Ennium —

  furentibus ventis

  561

  Servius, on Virgil’s ‘a place teeming with furious Southerlies’: ‘Southerlies.’ This is a figure of speech, namely, the particular for the general, which is frequent in Virgil. He had read in Ennius —

  with raging winds

  562

  Osbern, ap. Mai, Class Auct., VIII, 332: ‘Hoc momen, -nis’ pro momento. Unde Ennius —

  vestro sine momine, venti.

  Cp. Vergil., Aen., I, 133: meo sine numine, venti.

  562

  Osbern: ‘Hoc momen,’ gen. ‘mominis,’ for ‘momentum.’ Whence Ennius —

  without impulse of yours, o you winds.

  563

  Servius, ad Georg., III, 76 (Pecus generosi pullus in arvis | altius ingreditur et mollia crura reponit). ‘Altius ingreditur,’ cum exultatione quadam incedit. ‘Mollia crura reponit’: Ennius de gruibus —

  perque fabam repunt et mollia crura reponunt.

  563

  Servius, on Virgil’s ‘A foal of high-bred stud lifts a high pace in the fields and places a pliant leg’: ‘lifts a high pace,’ advances with a kind of prancing. ‘Places a pliant leg’: Ennius on cranes —

  and they creep through the beanfield, placing a pliant leg.

  564

  Charisius, ap. G.L., I, 18, 17 K: ‘Aulai medio’ Vergilius (Aen., III, 354); —

  terrai frugiferai

  Ennius in Annalibus.

  Cp. Martial., XI, 90, 5; Mar. Plot. Sac, ap. G.L., VI, 449, 2K; etc.

  564

  Charisius: Virgil has ‘aulai medio,’ and Ennius in the Annals has —

  of the fruite-bearing earthe

  565

  Gellius, XIII, 21, 13: Ennius autem ‘rectos cupressos’ dixit contra receptum vocabuli genus hoc versu —

  Capitibus nutantes pinos rectosque cupressos

  Cp. Non., 195, 23.

  565

  Gellius: Ennius too wrote ‘rectos cupressos’ against the accepted gende
r of the word, in this line —

  pines with nodding heads, and straight cypresses

  The Biography

  Aventine Hill, Rome — Ennius took up residence here in the literary quarter with the poet Caecilius Statius, a fellow adapter of Greek plays.

  LIFE OF ENNIUS by E. H. Warmington

  Quintus Ennius was born in 239 BC at Rudiae, now Rugge, in Calabria, or Messapia, and claimed, as a Messapian, to be descended from King Messapus, It was probably because this Italian district had been deeply influenced by Greek culture that Ennius was in later ages called ‘Greek’ or ‘Half-Greek.’ He was probably quite young when he learnt to speak not only Greek but Latin, for the colony of Brundisium was only twenty miles or so from Rudiae; he spoke Oscan also, and used to say that he had three ‘brains’ because he could speak Greek, Oscan, and Latin. From Jerome’s mistake in saying that Ennius was born at Tarentum it is perhaps right to conclude that he was educated there.

  He joined the Roman army and, according to Silius, rose to the rank of centurion. While he was serving in Sardinia in 204 BC, he was there brought to the notice of M. Porcius Cato, who was at that time quaestor. He is alleged to have instructed Cato in ‘Greek letters,’ which means that he introduced Cato to Greek literature if not to the Greek language. In any case he made a great impression on Cato, and was brought by him to Rome. There he lived on the Aventine, according to Jerome, and apparently tended grounds (loca coluit) sacred to Tutilina or ‘Guardian Goddess,’ according to Porcius (Licinus?) in a passage of Varro. He was doubtless attracted to the Aventine because in that region had been built, in honour of Livius Andronicus a temple of Minerva for the use of poets and actors. During the first years of his residence in Rome (which lasted during all the rest of his life) he appears to have earned his living chiefly by teaching Greek to Romans; but at the same time he took to writing original poetry which increased his income, the death of Livius Andronicus and the banishment of Naevius giving him a good opportunity within the range of drama. In the course of his writing he did much to establish a reasonable system of long and short syllables in poetry, and introduced into Latin the Greek hexameter. In due course he made friends with some of the most enlightened and influential Romans of the day, as is shown below. We can obtain a few glimpses of his character, and in this connexion it is worth while noting the good story which Cicero tells of him: Scipio Nasica, who was consul in 191, when he once went to call on Ennius, was put off by the statement of Ennius’ maidservant that the master was not at home. But Nasica had his suspicions that, at Ennius’ orders, she had not told the truth. So a few days later when Ennius called on Nasica, and asked for him at the front door, Nasica, unseen within, shouted that he was not at home. When Ennius claimed to recognise Nasica’s voice; Nasica replied ‘Shame on you. When I asked for you, I believed your maidservant that you weren’t at home; don’t you believe me in person?’ It is probably this story which gave rise to the tradition that on the Aventine Ennius lived a thrifty life and kept only one maidservant for his needs. However, it is probably a true tradition with regard to his early years in Rome, and it may be that Ennius never became a rich man; for he appears to have been poor even at seventy years of age. He was of a convivial nature, and perhaps drank more wine than was good for him. He said of himself ‘I never poetise unless I have the gout,’ and Horace says of him that he never ‘leaped forward to sing of arms’ (that is, he never went ahead with the composition of his Annals) unless he was drunk. Gellius quotes a fragment of Ennius in which the poet is alleged to describe his own character as that of a loyal, trustworthy, and intimate friend of those statesmen who chose to know him.