elegans urbanum, ingeniosum
facetum. Quo genere non modo Plautus noster et Atticorum antiqua
comoedia, sed etiam philosophorum Socraticorum libri referti sunt.'

Horace's unfavourable judgment is well known.

_Ep._ ii, 1, 170,

'Adspice Plautus
quo pacto partis tutetur amantis ephebi,
ut patris attenti, lenonis ut insidiosi,
quantus sit Dossenus edacibus in parasitis,
quam non adstricto percurrat pulpita socco.
Gestit enim nummum in loculos demittere, post hoc
securus cadat an recto stet fabula talo.'

Cf. _A.P._ 270-4. Cf. also Quint. x. 1, 99, 'In comoedia maxime
claudicamus, licet Varro Musas, Aelii Stilonis sententia, Plautino
dicat sermone locuturas fuisse, si Latine loqui vellent.'

ENNIUS.[14]

(1) LIFE.

Q. Ennius was born B.C. 239 at Rudiae in Calabria (about nineteen
miles south of Brundisium).

Gell. xvii. 21, 43, 'Consoles secuntur Q. Valerius et C. Mamilius,
quibus natum esse Q. Ennium poetam M. Varro in primo de poetis libro
scripsit eumque, cum septimum et sexagesimum annum haberet, duodecimum
annalem scripsisse, idque ipsum Ennium in eodem libro dicere.' (Cf.
Cic. _Tusc._ i. 3.) Enn. _Ann._ l. 440,

'Nos sumus Romani qui fuimus ante Rudini.'

Servius, _in Aen._ vii. 691, '(At Messapus equom domitor): Ab hoc
Ennius dicit se originem ducere.' (Enn. _Ann._ xviii. fr. 6.)

Ennius knew Greek, Latin, and Oscan. Latin he may have known as a boy,
since the colony of Brundisium was founded B.C. 244; the use of Greek
had been widely spread in South Italy through the influence of the
Greek colonies.[15]

Gell. xvii. 17, 1, 'Q. Ennius tria corda habere sese dicebat, quod
loqui Graece et Osce et Latine sciret.'

Ennius came to Sardinia during the Second Punic War, probably with
other Calabrian auxiliaries, but in what year is doubtful. Silius
Italicus xii. 387 _sqq._, says he was centurion B.C. 215, and
distinguished himself greatly; but his account is quite untrustworthy.
In Sardinia he made the acquaintance of M. Porcius Cato, then
quaestor, who induced him to come to Rome B.C. 204.

Nep. _Cato_, i. 4, 'Praetor (B.C. 198) provinciam obtinuit Sardiniam,
ex qua, quaestor superiore tempore ex Africa decedens, Q. Ennium
poetam deduxerat.'

The poet's Graecizing influence seems to have led afterwards to
hostility between him and his patron, but in spite of this, Ennius
appears to have cherished warm feelings towards Cato, and praised his
exploits in the _Annals_.

C