Some fine passages of the fragments of Ennius have been filled up, and the old readings corrected, by the recent discovery of the work De Republicâ of Cicero, who is always quoting from the ancient poets. Thus the passage in the Annals, where the Roman people are described as lamenting the death of Romulus, stands thus in Columna’s edition:—
—— “O Romole, Romole, dic ô
Qualem te patriæ custodem dii genuerunt,
Tu produxisti nos intra luminis oras,
O pater, ô genitor, ô sanguen diis oriundum.”
This fragment may be now supplied, and the verses arranged and corrected, from the quotation in the first book De Republicâ—
“Pectora pia tenet desiderium; simul inter
Sese sic memorant—O Romule, Romule die,
Qualem te patriæ custodem di genuerunt,
O pater, ô genitor, ô sanguen dîs oriundum!