That Virgil imitated Accius is mentioned by Macrob. vi. 1, 58, who compares, e.g., l. 156,
‘Virtuti sis par, dispar fortunis patris,’
and Aen. xii. 435-6,
‘Disce, puer, virtutem ex me verumque laborem,
fortunam ex aliis.’
Views on Accius.—A few of these may be referred to. Cic. pro Sest. 120, ‘Summi poetae ingenium.’ Ovid. Am. i. 15, 19,
‘Animosi Accius oris.’
Cf. also Quint. x. 1, 97; Tac. Dial. 20; and Hor. Ep. ii. 1, 55 (see ‘Pacuvius,’ [p. 37]).
Of the prose writers contemporary with Accius, the most important were the annalists L. Cassius Hemina and L. Calpurnius Piso Frugi; the orators Ti. and C. Graccus, and their opponent C. Fannius, and M. Aemilius Scaurus, the princeps senatus, who also wrote an autobiography (Cic. Brut. 112). L. Coelius Antipater wrote a history of the Second Punic War in seven Books, making use of Silenus, whose account was favourable to the Carthaginians (Cic. de Div. i. 49). His strength lay in style (Cic. de Or. ii. 53); though painstaking, he was apt to exaggerate (Liv. xxvii. 27, 12; xxix, 25, 3).