‘Ego deum genus esse semper dixi et dicam caelitum,
sed eos non curare opinor, quid agat humanum genus:
nam si curent, bene bonis sit, male malis, quod nunc abest’;
ibid., fr. 2,
‘Sed superstitiosi vates inpudentesque arioli,
aut inertes aut insani aut quibus egestas imperat,
qui sibi semitam non sapiunt, alteri monstrant viam,
quibus divitias pollicentur, ab eis drachumam ipsi petunt.’
Traces of Epicureanism are seen in Ann. i. fr. 13,
‘Terraque corpus
quae dedit ipsa capit neque dispendi facit hilum.’
Ennius also believed in the Pythagorean theory of metempsychosis, and considered that his soul had animated the body of a peacock. Ann. i. fr. 14,
‘Memini me fiere pavom.’
Persius 6, 10,
‘Cor iubet hoc Enni postquam destertuit esse
Maeonides Quintus pavone e Pythagoreo.’
Cf. also Lucr. i. 120-6.