Collected Fragments of Ennius

by Quintus Ennius

Not a mumble do I mouth or make.

  17

  Varro: In a passage of Ennius... ‘Mussare’ is a term used because mutes say no more than ‘mu’...

  nor do they dare to make (as we say) a mumble.

  Censorinus: Philolaus published the statement that the natural year has 364½ days... but our own writer Ennius says 366.

  Various Fragments

  18

  Varro: On any occasion when a case was of the more important kind, persons deputed for an oration were preferably those who could ‘orate’ or plead the cause most suitably. Hence the expression of Ennius —

  orators of clever speech

  19

  Paulus: ‘Adgretus’ in a passage of Ennius —

  having stepped forward to speak is put for the form ‘adgressus.’

  20

  Diomedes: ‘Possum.’... We find ‘potestur’ in Ennius —

  And he is not abled to be drawn back by commands.

  21

  Cicero: I think that —

  cities great and puissant

  as Ennius calls them are to be preferred to hamlets and forts.

  22

  Charisius: ‘Saga’... of the masculine... Ennius —

  a cloak of colour blue

  23

  Servius: ‘Indignus,’ wanton, or great. For Ennius too thus uses ‘indignas’ —

  unworthy towers

  24

  Cicero: Epicurus... while he was judging what is best for the palate, did not look up at —

  the palate of the sky

  as Ennius writes.

  25

  A grammarian: ‘Nix,’ feminine gender; for example, Ennius —

  these snowstorms

  26

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

  to those same herds of his.

  27

  Servius, on Virgil: ‘Then the rabble.’ ‘Rabble’ is well-chosen, since the leaders have been slain. The augmenter of Servius adds: Ennius —

  a rabble of birds

  28

  Nonius: ‘Araneae.’ This word is used even in the feminine gender.... Ennius —

  the gauze of the spider’s web

  29

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

  the box hewn, the yew shorn

  30

  Paulus: ‘Stipes,’ a stock fixed tight in the earth. Festus... Ennius... ‘stumps of fir-wood.’...

  Servius (supplemented) on ‘Salt sweat’ in Virgil.... Ennius too uses it of marshes.

  31

  Priscianus: Ennius has —

  all men long to have a following;

  ‘adsectari’ in a passive sense like ἀκολουθεῖσθαι.

  32

  Cicero: Is there anything more like madness than anger, which Ennius well calls —

  ‘the beginning of madness’?

  A scholiast on a passage of Lucan: Ennius says this about the Nile; for (he states) the sun during summer-time calls the waters up from the regions below, and hence it is that at that season the Nile grows in volume.

  Servius: Ennius says that the Nile is called ‘Melo,’ and Mount Atlas ‘Telamo.’

  33

  Servius (supplemented) on a passage in Virgil: The order must not be ‘hos suasit,’ lest the result be something like a solecism. Nevertheless, we do come across a construction of this kind; for example... Ennius —

  ‘Who persuaded you?’

  34

  Fronto: An opinion of Ennius— ‘an orator ought to be bold.’

  35

  Varro: ‘Dico’ has a Greek origin.... From this comes ‘dicare ‘in Ennius —

  I say this circus shows six small turning-posts.

  Hence ‘iudicare’ to judge, because then ‘ius dicitur,’ justice is delivered.

  36

  Isidorus: The knees are the junctures of the thighs and the legs, and they are called ‘genua’ on the ground that in the womb they are placed over against the ‘genae,’ cheeks.... Ennius —

  and the cheek compresses the knees, all close-packed.

  Spurious Fragments

  1

  Marius Victorinus: A ‘heroic’ line can take the shape of a trimeter, like —

  Long Alba’s people ringed their town with enclosures.

  For this line, if it be split up into two-footed metre, will become a trimeter.

  2

  An author on metres: The heroic hexameter... one consisting entirely of spondees —

  Then the Campani were made of Rome burgesses.

  3

  An author on Forms of the heroic hexameter: There is one kind which consists of twelve syllables, all of the feet being spondees, such as —

  Then there were brought in the envoys of Minturnae

  4

  Colonna: —

  The Phoenicians, stricken at heart

  This fragment was sent to me from Cosenza by Fabius of Aquinum; he gleaned it from the manuscript of a certain very old interpreter of Statius which was in his possession.

  5

  Pompeius: They used to compose a kind of verse which you will not find to contain anything but nouns and names ; for example —

  Marsian troop, Paelignian company, Vestinian warrior-force

  6–7

  Placidus: —

  Rome on the North is touched on by the Rhaeti

  ‘Destringunt,’ border on, or are joined directly to her boundaries.

  8

  Priscianus: —

  son of Saturn, O our begetter, greatest of gods,

  9–10

  Servius, on ‘Iovi Stygio’ in Virgil: We must note that the Stoics say there is but one god, to whom various names are given according to his activities and functions, whence we have names of gods belonging to both sexes... a speech of Jupiter —

  Dwellers of heaven, my own members, gods made by the division of my power into its duties,

  11

  Varro: ‘Templum’ is a term which was first used of spaces wheresoever our eyes had held ‘contemplation,’ ‘intuiti erant’; it is derived from ‘tueri’; hence it is that the term ‘templum’ was used of the sky also, where we see it in ‘contemplation,’ thus —

  Trembled all the mighty precinct of high-thundering Jupiter.

  12

  Charisius says: A ‘solecism’ is grammar which does not follow the rule... —

  And you, House-Gods, who make our home, from floor to roof, their care,

  13

  A commentator on Donatus: ‘Tmesis’ is the splitting apart of one word, that is to say, by the interposition of another, like the familiar example septem subiecta trioni. Take subiecta away from the middle and you have ‘septemtrioni.’ Ennius —

  With a stone he his crani split um

  14

  Diomedes: ‘Partipedes’ are lines in which to each single foot a single complete word is assigned, for example —

  They with Bloodstains filthily spattered limpid rivulets tainted.

  15

  Nonius: ‘Fundere,’ to hurl down, to throw. Virgil in the first book of the Aeneid... and in the second book of the Aeneid: ‘sprawled they lay, out of their minds, their senses utterly gone.’

  16–17

  The author of The Spanish War: ‘Hereon they not only heaped death on death... but piled barrows level with barrows.’

  Woelfflin restores a fr. of Ennius: —

  They pile barrows by barrows; and deaths on deaths they heap.

  18

  A commentator on Donatus: ‘Solecisms’ come about in misuse of the voices of verbs, like this example —

  Them they despoil and leave the bodies bare.

  where ‘spoliantur’ stands for ‘spoliant.’

  19

  Marius: ‘Synecdoche’ comes about when an utterance expresses more, or less, than the minimum of meaning which necessity demands...

  The king began to stretch both across the ditch.

  Here ‘hands�
� is understood.

  20

  Porphyrio, on ‘dictae per carmina sortes’ in Horace: Answers were made in hexameters by... —

  Phemonoe to Burrus! I hear the Epirote in purple clad.

  21–2

  Orosius, on the battle of Heraclea, 280 BC: But as for the atrocity of the slaughter which Pyrrhus sustained in this campaign, he bore witness to it before his own gods and before mankind by fixing up in the temple of Jupiter of Tarentum a notice in which he wrote these words —

  Best father of Olympus, men as yet Unbeaten, beat I them, by them was beaten.

  And when his allies angrily asked why he who had beaten his enemies said he was himself beaten, he is stated to have answered, ‘Sure it is that if I beat them again in the same manner I shall return to Epirus without a single soldier.’

  23

  Festus: ‘Pronged spears’ are so called because they are pointed as it were with prongs. Ennius in the tenth book —

  Oftentimes five hundred flights of a pronged spear.

  24

  Diomedes: ‘Parhomoeon’ comes about when words begin with the same letter; for example —

  A most mighty menacing machine menaces much the muniments.

  25

  Nonius: ‘Urgere’ means to press, to force.... Varro, in Human Antiquities —

  Where he has willed the wall to be, therein are we squeezed in a mass.

  26

  A gloss: ‘Album’ means a tablet in which were written the names of those who were recruited for military service; and if it so happened that any one of them had been killed, the letter theta was added above his name.... That most excellent verse-writer Ennius has —

  theta, you letter unluckier far than others!

  27

  Barth professes to quote a scholiast: ‘Carbasus,’ a ship, derived from its use as a sail; for example, Ennius —

  High flits the flaxen sail, that will lead on the curved keel.

  28

  Varro: Ennius writes... (‘canes’ fem. sing.; see p–3) ‘trabes’ feminine singular —

  with oars through the deep a beaked bark ...

  Then follows Ennius, Med., 253–4.

  29

  Varro: —

  They were well-nigh at hand in their ships that came creeping over the level deep.

  ‘Aequor’ is a term used of the sea...

  30

  Varro: In a passage of Ennius... ‘cata’ means sharp.... In the line which runs —

  Then at the same time he proceeded to speak pointed words by ‘cata dicta’ we are to understand ‘acuta dicta.’

  31

  Barth claimed to have found a fr. of Ennius in a ‘very good MS.’: A ‘good’ and a ‘free’ man differ in that a good man is one who through his very nature does no harm, and a ‘free’ man is one who gives benefits in a ‘free’ way.... Ennius —

  which a people good and free

  32

  Barth claimed to have had access to a MS. note on Virgil’s ‘O youth of foremost valour’:... ‘it is further taken from Ennius’ —

  33–6

  Ausonius: As Ennius says —

  happy-making joll

  fills you; let the jaundiced minds of men distil gall-clotted pus. And again: How is it that the man of Rudiae says —

  home of the gods, high-sounding heav,

  and after whose manner is the phrase which he adds —

  into his dom

  or again, in speaking of a leaf, why does he say —

  poplar-fol

  37

  From a scholiast referred to by Cruquius: ‘Lamas,’ pools of the bigger sort containing... rain-water.... Ennius —

  Glades and lurking-holes and muddy pools in the forests

  38

  Festus: ‘Sagax’ is a term applied to persons who possess plenty of sharp cunning... even a hound... —

  a matchless hound, cunning of nostril, trusting too in his strength

  39

  Censorinus: A spondaic hexameter of twelve syllables —

  Deep they drank their draughts from gold-encrusted wine-bowls.

  40

  Diomedes: ‘Homoeoptoton’ comes about when the words all finish in the same case and have a like ending; for example, Ennius —

  mourning, sobbing, weeping, pitying

  41

  The author of To Herennius: Good composition... will be preserved... if we do not use a continuous series of words which end in a like sound, in this way —

  sobbing, imploring, weeping, protesting

  42

  Colonna professes to quote a fragment of Ennius from an ancient commentator: —

  To restep one’s step

  43

  Varro: —

  You shall know that we whom men call the Muses are Camenae.

  Casmena is the old form of this word; it originated thus and so has it been spelt elsewhere by writers. The form Carmenae is derived from the same original.

  44

  Donatus: ‘Tmesis’ is the splitting up of one simple or composite word by thrusting in one or more utterances; for example... —

  Massili- by young men were transported to the beach-tans

  that is, ‘Massilitans.’

  The Latin Texts

  Carthaginian war elephants engage Roman infantry at the Battle of Zama, 202 BC — in middle life, Ennius served as a centurion in the Second Punic War.

  THE LATIN FRAGMENTS

  In this section of the eBook, readers can view the original Latin fragments of Ennius. You may wish to Bookmark this page for future reference.

  CONTENTS

  Annals

  Liber I

  Liber II

  Liber III

  Liber IV

  Liber V

  Liber VI

  Liber VII

  Liber VIII

  Liber IX

  Liber X

  Liber XI

  Liber XII

  Liber XIII

  Liber XIV

  Liber XV

  Liber XVI

  Liber XVII

  Liber XVIII

  Other Fragments of the Annals not assigned to any Book

  Tragedies

  Achilles sive Achilles Aristarchi

  Aiax

  Alcmeo

  Alexander

  Andromacha sive Andromacha Aechmalotis

  Andromeda

  Athamas

  Cresphontes

  Erechtheus

  Eumenides

  Hectoris Lytra

  Hecuba

  Iphigenia

  Medea sive Medea Exul

  Melanippa

  Nemea

  Phoenix

  Telamo

  Telephus

  Other Plays

  Ambracia

  Sabinae

  Caupuncula

  Pancratiastes

  From Tragedies

  From Comedies

  Either Tragedies or Comedies

  Satires

  Liber I

  Liber II

  Liber III

  Liber IV

  Unplaced Fragments from the Satires

  Scipio

  Epigrams

  Other Poems

  Sotas

  Delikatessen

  Epicharmus

  Euhemerus sive Sacra Historia

  Fragments not assigned to any work

  From the Annals?

  From the Satires?

  Various Fragments

  Spurious Fragments

  Annals

  Liber I

  1

  Varro, L.L., VII, 19: Ennii... —

  Musae quae pedibus magnum pulsatis Olympum;

  caelum dicunt Graeci Olympum.

  Cp. Varr., R.R., I, 1, 4; Serv., ad Aen., XI., 660; Hom. Il., II, 484 Ἔσπετε νῦν μοι Μοῦσαι Ὀλύμπια δώματ᾿ ἔχουσαι.

  2–3

  [Probus], ap. G.L., IV, 23, 11 K: Neutro genere... brevis est (syllaba).... Ennius in I —
/>
  Nam populos...... Italos res atque poemata nostra cluebunt.

  Fronto, de Eloq., 146 N: Magistra Homeri Calliopa, magister Enni Homerus et Somnus.

  Fronto, Epp., Vol. I, p. 94 (cp. 98) Haines: Transeo nunc ad Q. Ennium nostrum, quem tu ais ex somno et somnio initium sibi scribendi fecisse. Sed profecto nisi ex somno suscitatus esset, numquam somnium suum narrasset.

  4

  Fronto, Epp., Vol. I, pp. 204 H: Si quando te —

  somno leni

  ut poeta ait —

  placidoque revinctus

  video in somnis, numquam est quin amplectar et exosculer... hoc unum ex Annalibus sumptum amoris mei argumentum poeticum et sane somniculosum.

  5

  Cicero, Ac. Pr., II, 16, 51: Cum somniavit (Ennius) narravit —

  visus Homerus adesse poeta.

  Cp. Ac. Pr., 27, 88: de Re Pub., VI, 10, 10.

  6

  Cicero, Ac. Pr., II, 27, 88: Nisi vero Ennium non putamus ita totum illud audivisse —