ABBREVIATIONS.
A. & G. = Allen and Greenough's New Latin Grammar. B. = Bennett's Latin Grammar. G. & L. = Gildersleeve and Lodge's Latin Grammar. Lex. = Harper's Latin-English Lexicon. cf. = confer, compare. e.g. = exempli gratia, for example. ff. = following. i.e. = id est, that is. l.,ll. = line, lines. lit. = literally. p., pp. = page, pages. sc. = scilicet, understand, supply. vol. = volume.
NOTES.
CLASSICAL LATIN POETRY.
I. ENNIUS. 239-169 B.C.
Ennius ut noster cecinit, qui primus amoeno
Detulit ex Helicone perenni fronde coronam,
Per gentes Italas hominum quae clara clueret.
Lucretius, 1. 117-119.
Let us venerate Ennius like the groves, sacred from their antiquity, in which the great and ancient oak trees are invested not so much with beauty as with sacred associations.—Quintilian, 10. 1. 88,—translated by Sellar.
Q. Ennius, 'the Father of Latin Literature,' was born at Rudiae, a town of Calabria and a point of contact between the Italian and Greek civilizations. He served with the rank of centurion in the Roman army in Sardinia and attached himself to Cato the Censor. In 204 he came to Rome, where he lived modestly, supporting himself by teaching Greek and by his writings. There he became an intimate friend of the great Scipio. The most famous of his works are the tragedies, written on Greek models, and the Annals, a long epic poem in eighteen books, whose subject is the history of Rome from the earliest times to Ennius' own day. We have fragments of about twenty-five of the tragedies. Of the Annals about six hundred lines are preserved.
Ennius introduced the dactylic hexameter into Latin poetry.
He was versatile, widely read in Greek literature, a man of practical interests and intellectual vigor. His intense patriotism was rewarded by an enduring popularity.