Engȳum, now Gangi, a town of Sicily freed from tyranny by Timoleon. Cicero, Against Verres, bk. 3, ch. 43; bk. 4, ch. 44.—Silius Italicus, bk. 14, li. 250.
Enienses, a people of Greece.
Eniopeus, a charioteer of Hector, killed by Diomedes. Homer, Iliad, bk. 8, li. 120.
Enīpeus, a river of Thessaly, flowing near Pharsalia. Lucan, bk. 6, li. 373.——A river of Elis in Peloponnesus, of which Tyro the daughter of Salmoneus became enamoured. Neptune assumed the shape of the river god to enjoy the company of Tyro. Ovid, Amores, bk. 3, poem 5.—Strabo.
Enispe, a town of Arcadia. Pausanias, bk. 8, ch. 25.
Enna, now Castro Janni, a town in the middle of Sicily, with a beautiful plain, whence Proserpine was carried away by Pluto. Mela, bk. 2, ch. 7.—Cicero, Against Verres, bk. 3, ch. 49; bk. 4, ch. 104.—Ovid, Fasti, bk. 4, li. 522.—Livy, bk. 24, ch. 37.
Ennia, was the wife of Macro, and afterwards of the emperor Caligula. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 6, ch. 45.
Quintus Ennius, an ancient poet born at Rudii in Calabria. He obtained the name and privileges of a Roman citizen by his genius and the brilliancy of his learning. His style is rough and unpolished, but his defects, which are more particularly attributed to the age in which he lived, have been fully compensated by the energy of his expressions and the fire of his poetry. Quintilian warmly commends him, and Virgil has shown his merits by introducing many whole lines from his poetry into his own compositions, which he calls pearls gathered from the dunghill. Ennius wrote in heroic verse 18 books of the annals of the Roman republic, and displayed much knowledge of the world in some dramatical and satirical compositions. He died of the gout, contracted by frequent intoxication, about 169 years before the christian era, in the 70th year of his age. Ennius was intimate with the great men of his age; he accompanied Cato in his questorship in Sardinia, and was esteemed by him of greater value than the honours of a triumph; and Scipio, on his death-bed, ordered his body to be buried by the side of his poetical friend. This epitaph was said to be written upon him:
Aspicite, o cives, senis Ennii imaginis formam!
Hic vestrum pinxit maxima facta patrum.