"Non genus virum ornat, generi vir fortis loco." [20]
He was a careful chooser of words, e.g.
"Tu pertinaciam esse, Antiloche, hanc praedicas,
Ego pervicaciam aio et ea me uti volo:
Haec fortis sequitur, illam indocti possident….
Nam pervicacem dici me esse et vincere
Perfacile patior, pertinaciam nil moror." [21]
These distinctions, obvious as they are to us, were by no means so to the early Romans. Close resemblance in sound seemed irresistibly to imply some connexion more than that of mere accident; and that turning over the properties of words, which in philosophy as well as poetry seems to us to have something childish in it, had its legitimate place in the development of each language. Accius paints action with vigour. We have the following spirited fragment—
"Constituit, cognovit, sensit, conlocat sese in locum
Celsum: hinc manibus rapere raudus saxeum et grave."
and again—
"Heus vigiles properate, expergite,
Pectora tarda, sopore exsurgite!"
He was conspicuous among tragedians for a power of reasoned eloquence of the forensic type; and delighted in making two rival pleaders state their case, some of his most successful scenes being of this kind. His opinions resembled those of Ennius, but were less irreverent. He acknowledges the interest of the gods in human things—
"Nam non facile sine deum opera humana propria [22] sunt bona,"
and in a fragment of the Brutus he enforces the doctrine that dreams are often heaven-sent warnings, full of meaning to those that will understand them. Nevertheless his contempt for augury was equal to that of his master—