In B.C. 184 the poet received the Roman citizenship through the son of Fulvius, Q. Nobilior. Hence ‘nos sumus Romani, qui fuimus ante Rudini’ (above). He also received a grant of land at Potentia or Pisaurum from Fulvius, who was then triumvir coloniae deducendae.
Cic. Brut. 79, ‘Q. Nobiliorem M. f. ..., qui etiam Q. Ennium, qui cum patre eius in Aetolia militaverat, civitate donavit, cum triumvir coloniam deduxisset.’
Ennius probably spent the greater part of his days, after returning from the Aetolian war, at Rome; and during this period he was on intimate terms with the comic poet Caecilius Statius (see [p. 37]). He was often in indifferent circumstances, in spite of the grant of land he had received. Ennius died of gout B.C. 169.
Cic. Cato Maior, 14, ‘Annos septuaginta natus—tot enim vixit Ennius—ita ferebat duo quae maxima putantur onera, paupertatem et senectutem, ut eis paene delectari videretur.’
Cic. Brut. 78, ‘Hoc [C. Sulpicio Gallo] praetore ludos Apollini faciente, cum Thyesten fabulam docuisset, Q. Marcio Cn. Servilio coss. (B.C. 169) mortem obiit Ennius.’
Jerome yr. Abr. 1849 = B.C. 168, ‘Ennius poeta septuagenario maior articulari morbo periit, sepultusque est in Scipionis monumento via Appia intra primum ab urbe miliarium. Quidam ossa eius Rudiam ex Ianiculo translata affirmant.’
For his gout cf. Enn. Sat. 1. 8,
‘Numquam poetor nisi si podager’;
Hor. Ep. i. 19, 7,
‘Ennius ipse pater numquam nisi potus ad arma
prosiluit dicenda.’