noster Ennius

 

See de Sen 1, 10, 14, 16, 50, 73: familiaris noster Ennius

Quintus ENNIUS was born in Calabria in 239 B.C.  According to Aulus Gellius, Quintus Ennius tria corda habere sese dicebat, quod loqui Graece et Osce et Latine sciret. He served in the Roman army in Sardinia in 204 and this is where he met Cato who brought him back to Rome. Like Naevius, he wrote tragedies and comedies, but is best known for his epic the Annales, "a work," according to Gordon Williams (OCD), "of decisive originality especially in its application of the dactylic hexameter to epic" [earlier epic had been written in Saturnian verse].

Selections are from Otto Skutsch, The Annals of Q. Ennius, Oxford, 1985 and E. H. Warmington, Remains of Old Latin, vol. 1, LCL, 1935.

Cicero was a great admirer of Ennius. He opens his de Senectute with a quotation from the tenth book of the Annales and, in all, quotes him about fifty times. Vergil borrowed many lines from him.

There are over 500 fragments of the Annales. The work was originally in eighteen books, arranged (see Skutsch) in groups of three:

I-III the age of the kings

IV-VI the conquest of Italy and the war with Pyrrhus

VII-IX the Punic Wars

X-XII Greek affairs including the 2nd Macedonian War

XIII-XV Syrian War and the triumph over the Aetolians

XVI-XVIII recent wars

As Gordon Williams writes "The meagre fragments that survive conceal a most serious loss for the understanding of Latin literature" (OCD). Or see the comment of the scholar Scaliger, "Ennius, poeta egregius, magnifico ingenio. utinam hunc haberemus integrum et amisissemus Lucanum, Statium, Silium, et tous ces garcons-la... quamquam interdum alium olet, tamen optime animatus est." [OHLL]

 

 

Selections from the fragments of the Annales

I. 1.

Musae, quae pedibus magnum pulsatis Olympum...

pulso "beat" in the dance

I. 20.

est locus Hesperiam quam mortales perhibeant.

quam is attracted into the gender of the predicate noun Hesperiam

 

I. 21-2

Saturnia terra, quam Prisci, casci populi, tenuere Latini...

 

I. 31

Olli respondit rex Albai Longai.

 

I. 32

accipe daque fidem foedusque feri bene firmum.

I. 34-50 Ilia's dream

  1. Et cita cum tremulis anus attulit artubus lumen.
  2. Talia tum memorat lacrimans, exterrita somno:
  3. "Eurydica prognata, pater quam nostra amavit,
  4. vires vitaque corpus meum nunc desrit omne.
  5. Nam me visus homo pulcer per amoena salicta
  6. et ripas rapteare locosque novos. Ita sola
  7. postilla, germana soror, errare videbar
  8. tardaque vestigare et quaerere te neque posse
  9. corde capessere: semita nulla pedem stabilibat.
  10. Exim compellare pater me voce videtur
  11. his verbis: "O gnata, tibi sunt ante gerendae
  12. aerumnae, post ex fluvio fortuna resistet.
  13. Haec ecfatus pater, germana, repente recessit.
  14. Nec sese dedit in conspectum corde cupitus,
  15. quamquam multa manus ad caeli caerula templa
  16. tendebam lacrumans et blanda voce vocabam.
  17. Vix aegro cum corde meo me somnus reliquit."

Ilia is Aeneas' daughter and will be mother of Romulus and Remus

anus old woman: an old nurse of Ilia's

Eurydica prognata daughter of Eurydica (Euridica, according to Ennius, was a wife of Aeneas and mother of the half-sister of Ilia addressed in this line)

deserit in agreement with vita the nearest noun.

salictum willow-grove

raptare drag away

te object of vestigare, quaerere, capessere

corde capessere (?) "to reach you" corde strengthens the verb, Skutsch (or "to catch you to my heart," Warmington)

semita path

stabilibat archaic imperfect of stabilio make firm, support

exim = exinde after that

compello address, call

aerumna trouble, hardship

vix just now

104

O Tite, tute, Tati, tibi tanta, tyranne, tulisti.

V.156

moribus antiquis res stat Romana virisque

 

VI. 175-179

  1. Incedunt arbusta per alta, securibus caedunt.
  2. Percellunt magnas quercus, exciditur ilex,
  3. fraxinus frangitur atque abies consternitur alta,
  4. pinus proceras pervortant; omne sonabat
  5. arbustum fremitu silvai frondosai.

VI. 183-190

  1. Nec mi aurum posco nec mi pretium dederitis
  2. nec cauponantes bellum sed belligerantes
  3. ferro non auro vitam cernamus utrique;
  4. vosne velit an me regnare era, quidve ferat Fors,
  5. vitute experiamur. Et hoc simul accipe dictum:
  6. quorum virtuti belli fortuna pepercit,
  7. eorundem libertati me parcere certum est.
  8. Dono, ducite, doque volentibus cum magnis dis.

The reply of Pyrrhus to Fabricius who was leading the embassy to ransom the Roman prisoners of war.

 

VI. 214

Poeni soliti suos sacrificare puellos.

puellus diminutive of puer

 

VII.223

longique cupressi

stant resctis foliis et amaro corpore buxum

Ennius' trees are masculine here (contrary to common usage)

buxum boxtree

VII.233

Fortibus est fortuna viris data.

 

VII.240

Iuno Vesta Minerva Ceres Diana Venus Mars

Mercurius Iovis Neptunus Volcanus Apollo.

The gods who were present at the council and part of a description of the institution of expiatory rituals. (Skutsch)

IX.304-308

  1. Additur orator Cornelius suaviloquenti
  2. ore, Cethegus Marcus, Tuditano collega,
  3. Marci filius.
  4. Is dictus ollis popularibus olim
  5. qui tum vivebant homines atque aevum agitabant,
  6. 'Flos delibatus populi Suadaeque medulla.'

See de Sen. 50

 

XII.382

nunc est ille dies quom gloria maxima sese

nobis ostentat, si vivimus sive morimur.

A commander is addressing his troops.

 

XII. 404

Reges per regnum statuasque sepulchraque quaerunt,

aedificant nomen, summa nituntur opum vi.

 

XII. 423

Si luci si nox si mox si iam data sit frux.