detailed the events of the second Carthaginian war in Italy and Africa.
This was by much the most interesting part of the copious subject which
Ennius had chosen, and a portion of it on which he would probably exert
all the force of his genius, in order the more to honour his friend and
patron Scipio Africanus. The same topic was selected by Silius Italicus,
and by Petrarch for his Latin poem _Africa_, which obtained him a
coronation in the Capitol. “Ennius,” says the illustrious Italian, “has
sung fully of Scipio; but, in the opinion of Valerius Maximus, his style
is harsh and vulgar, and there is yet no elegant poem which has for its
subject the glorious exploits of the conqueror of Hannibal.” None of the
poets who have chosen this topic, have done full justice to the most
arduous struggle in which two powerful nations had ever engaged, and which
presented the most splendid display of military genius on the one hand,
and heroic virtue on the other, that had yet been exhibited to the world.
Livy’s historical account of the second Punic war possesses more real
poetry than any poem on the subject whatever.
The tenth, eleventh, and twelfth books of the Annals of Ennius, contained
the war with Philip of Macedon. In the commencement of the thirteenth,
Hannibal excites Antiochus to a war against the Romans. In the fourteenth
book, the Consul Scipio, in the prosecution of this contest, arrives at
Ilium, which he thus apostrophizes:
“O patria! O divûm domus Ilium, et incluta bello
Pergama!”
Several Latin writers extol the elegant lines of Ennius immediately
following, in which the Roman soldiers, alluding to its magnificent
revival in Rome, exclaim with enthusiasm, that Ilium could not be
destroyed;
“Quai neque Dardaneeis campeis potuere perire,
Nec quom capta capei, nec quom combusta cremari(194);”
a passage which has been closely imitated in the seventh book of Virgil:
“Num Sigeis occumbere campis,
Num capti potuere capi: num incensa cremavit
Troja viros?”
The fifteenth book related the expedition of Fulvius Nobilior to Ætolia,
which Ennius himself is said to have accompanied. In the two following
books he prosecuted the Istrian war; which concludes with the following
animated description of a single hero withstanding the attack of an armed
host:—
“Undique conveniunt, velut imber, tela Tribuno.
Configunt parmam, tinnit hastilibus umbo,
Æratæ sonitant galeæ: sed nec pote quisquam
Undique nitendo corpus discerpere ferro.
Semper abundanteis hastas frangitque, quatitque;
Totum sudor habet corpus, moltumque laborat;
Nec respirandi fit copia præpete ferro.
Istrei tela manu jacientes sollicitabant.
Occumbunt moltei leto, ferroque lapique,
Aut intra moeros, aut extra præcipi casu(195).”
The concluding, or eighteenth, book seems to have been in a great measure
personal to the poet himself. It explains his motive for writing:—
—— “Omnes mortales sese laudarier optant;” ——
and he seemingly compares himself to a Courser, who rests after his
triumphs in the Olympic games:—
“Sic ut fortis Equus, spatio qui sæpe supremo
Vicit Olumpiaco, nunc senio confectus quiescit(196).”
Connected with his Annals, there was a poem of Ennius devoted to the
celebration of the exploits of Scipio, in which occurs a much-admired
description of the calm of Evening, where the flow of the versification is
finely modulated to the still and solemn imagery:—
“Mundus cœli vastus constitit silentio,
Et Neptunus sævus undeis aspereis pausam dedit:
Sol equeis iter repressit unguleis volantibus,
Constitere amneis perenneis—arbores vento vacant(197).”
With this first attempt at descriptive poetry in the Latin language, it
may be interesting to compare a passage produced in the extreme old age of
Roman literature, which also paints, by nearly the same images, the
profound repose of Nature:—
—— “Tacet omne pecus, volucresque feræque,
Et simulant fessos curvata cacumina somnos;
Nec trucibus fluviis idem sonus; occidit horror
Æquoris, et terris maria acclinata quiescunt.”
Horace, in one of his odes, strongly expresses the glory and honour which
the Calabrian muse of Ennius had conferred on Scipio by this poem, devoted
to his praise:
“Non incendia Carthaginis impiæ,
Ejus qui domita nomen ab Africa
Lucratus rediit, clarius indicant
Laudes quam Calabræ Pierides(198).”
The historical poems of Ennius appear to have been written without the
introduction of much machinery or decorative fiction; and whether founded
on ancient ballads, according to one opinion(199), or framed conformably
to historical truth, according to another(200), they were obviously
deficient in those embellishments of imagination which form the
distinction between a poem and a metrical chronicle. In the subject which
he had chosen, Ennius wanted the poetic advantages of distance in place or
of time. It perhaps matters little whether the ground-work of a heroic
poem be historical or entirely fictitious, if free scope be given for the
excursions of fancy. But, in order that it may sport with advantage, the
event must be remote in time or in place; and if this rule be observed,
such subjects as those chosen by Camoens or Tasso admit of as much
colouring and embellishment as the _Faery Queen_. It is in this that Lucan
and Voltaire have erred; and neither the soaring genius of the one, nor
brilliancy of the other, could raise their themes, splendid as they were,
from the dust, or steep the mind in those reveries in which we indulge on
subjects where there is no visible or known bound to credulity and
imaginings. Still the Annals of Ennius, as a national work, were highly
gratifying to a proud ambitious people, and, in consequence, continued
long popular at Rome. They were highly relished in the age of Horace and
Virgil; and, as far down as the time of Marcus Aurelius, they were recited
in theatres and other public places for the amusement of the people(201).
The Romans, indeed, were so formed on his style, that Seneca called them
_populus Ennianus_—an Ennian race,—and said, that both Cicero and Virgil
were obliged, contrary to their own judgment, to employ antiquated terms,
in compliance with the reigning prejudice(202). From his example, too,
added to the national character, the historical epic became in future
times the great poetical resource of the Romans, who versified almost
every important event in their history. Besides the _Pharsalia_ of Lucan,
and _Punica_ of Silius Italicus, which still survive, there were many
works of this description which are now lost. Varro Atacinus chose as his
subject Cæsar’s war with the Sequani—Varius, the deeds of Augustus and
Agrippa—Valgius Rufus, the battle of Actium—Albinovanus, the exploits of
Germanicus—Cicero, those of Marius, and the events of his own consulship.
We have already seen Ennius’s imitation of the Greeks in his tragedies and
satires; and even in the above-mentioned historical poems, though devoted
to the celebration of Roman heroes and subjects exclusively national, he
has borrowed copiously from the Greek poets, and has often made his Roman
consuls fight over again the Homeric battles. Thus the description of the
combat of Ajax, in the 16th Book of the Iliad, beginning Αιας δ’ ουκετ’
ἐμιμνε, has suggested a passage, above quoted, from the fragments of the
Istrian war; and the picture of a steed breaking from his stall, and
ranging the pastures, is imitated from a similar description, in the 6th
Book of the Iliad—
“Et tunc sicut Equus, qui de præsepibus actus,
Vincla sua magneis animeis abrumpit, et inde
Fert sese campi per cœrula, lætaque prata;
Celso pectore, sæpe jubam quassat simul altam:
Spiritus ex animâ calidâ spumas agit albas(203).”
Homer’s lines are the following:—
“Ὡς δ’ ὁτε τις στατος ἱππος, ακοςησας επι φατνῃ
Δεσμον απορρηξας θειει πεδιοιο κροαινων,
Ἐιωθως λουεσθαι εὐρρειος ποταμοιο,
Κυδιοων· ὑψου δε καρη ἐχει, αμφι δε χαιται
Ὡμοις αισσονται. ὁ δ’ αγλαιηφι πεποιθως,
Ριμφα ἑ γουνα φερει μετα τ’ ἠθεα και νομον ιππων(204).”
In order to afford an opportunity of judging of Ennius’s talents for
imitation, I have subjoined from the two poets, who carried that art to
the greatest perfection, corresponding passages, which are both evidently
founded on the same Greek original—
“Qualis, ubi abruptis fugit præsepia vinclis,
Tandem liber, Equus, campoque potitus aperto;
Aut ille in pastus armentaque tendit equarum,
Aut, assuetus aquæ perfundi flumine noto,
Emicat, arrectisque fremit cervicibus alte
Luxurians; luduntque jubæ per colla, per armos(205).”
The other parallel passage is in Tasso’s Jerusalem Delivered—
“Come Destrier, che dalle reggie stalle,
Ove al uso dell’ arme si riserba,
Fugge, e libero alfin, per largo calle
Va tra gli armenti, o al fiume usato, o all’ erba;
Scherzan sul collo i crini, e sulle spalle:
Si scuote la cervice alta e superba:
Suonano i pie nel corso, e par ch’avvampi,
Di sonori nitriti empiendo i campi(206).”
To these parallel passages may be added a very similar, though perhaps not
a borrowed description, from the earliest production of the most original
of all poets, in which the horse of Adonis breaks loose during the
dalliance of Venus with his master:—
“The strong-necked steed, being tied unto a tree,
Breaketh his rein, and to her straight goes he.
Imperiously he leaps, he neighs, he bounds,
And now his woven girts he breaks asunder,
The bearing earth with his hard hoof he wounds,
Whose hollow womb resounds like heaven’s thunder.
His ears up-prick’d, his braided hanging mane,
Upon his compass’d crest, now stands an end;
His nostrils drink the air, and forth again,
As from a furnace, vapours doth he send.
His eye which glisters scornfully, like fire,
Shows his hot courage and his high desire(207).”
The poem of Ennius, entitled _Phagetica_, is curious,—as one would hardly
suppose, that in this early age, luxury had made such progress, that the
culinary art should have been systematically or poetically treated. All
that we know, however, of the manner in which it was prepared or served
up, is from the _Apologia_ of Apuleius. It was, which its name imports, a
didactic poem on eatables, particularly fish, as Apuleius testifies.—“Q.
Ennii _edes_ phagetica, quæ versibus scripsit, innumerabilia piscium
genera enumerat, quæ scilicet curiose cognorat.” It is well known, that
previous to the time of Ennius, this subject had been discussed both in
prose and verse by various Greek authors(208), and was particularly
detailed in the poem of Archestratus the Epicurean—
“—— The bard
Who sang of poultry, venison, and lard,
Poet and cook ——”
It appears from the following passage of Apuleius, that the work of Ennius
was a digest of all the previous books on this subject,—“Alios etiam
multis versibus decoravit, et ubi gentium quisque eorum inveniatur,
ostendit qualiter assus, aut jussulentus optime sapiat; nec tamen ab
eruditis reprehenditur.” The eleven lines which remain, and which have
been preserved by Apuleius, mention the places where different sorts of
fish are found in greatest perfection and abundance—
“Brundusii Sargus bonus est; hunc, magnus erit si,
Sume: Apriclum piscem scite, primum esse Tarenti;
Surrentei fac emas Glaucum,” &c.
Another poem of Ennius, entitled _Epicharmus_, was so called because it
was translated from the Greek work of Epicharmus, the Pythagorean, on the
Nature of Things, in the same manner as Plato gave the name of _Timæus_ to
the book which he translated from Timæus the Locrian. This was the same
Epicharmus who invented Greek comedy, and resided in the court of Hiero of
Syracuse. The fragments of this work of Ennius are so broken and
corrupted, that it is impossible to follow the plan of his poem, or to
discover the system of philosophy which it inculcated. It appears,
however, to have contained many speculations concerning the elements of
which the world was primarily composed, and which, according to him, were
water, earth, air, and fire(209); as also with regard to the preservative
powers of nature. Jupiter seems merely to have been considered by him as
the air, the clouds, and the storm:
“Isteic is est Jupiter, quem dico, Græci vocant
Aera; quique ventus est, et nubes, imber postea,
Atque ex imbre frigus; ventus post fit, aer denuo:
Istæc propter Jupiter sunt ista, quæ dico tibei,
Qui mortales urbeis, atque belluas omneis juvat(210).”
This system, which had been previously adopted by the Etruscans, and had
been promulgated in some of the Orphic hymns, nearly corresponds with that
announced by Cato, in Lucan’s _Pharsalia_—
“Jupiter est quodcunque vides, quocunque moveris;”
and is not far different from the Spinozism, in Pope’s Essay on Man—
“Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze,
Glows in the stars, and blossoms in the trees;
Lives through all life, extends through all extent,
Spreads undivided, operates unspent.”
Ennius, however, whose compositions thus appear to have been formed
entirely on Greek originals, has not more availed himself of these
writings than Virgil has profited by the works of Ennius. The prince of
Latin Poets has often imitated long passages, and sometimes copied whole
lines, from the Father of Roman Song. This has been shown, in a close
comparison, by Macrobius, in his _Saturnalia_(211).
ENNIUS, Book 1.
“Qui cœlum versat stellis fulgentibus aptum.”
VIRGIL, Book 6.
“Axem humero torquet stellis ardentibus aptum.”
ENNIUS, 1.
“Est locus Hesperiam quam mortales perhibebant.”
VIRGIL, 1.
“Est locus Hesperiam Graii cognomine dicunt.”
ENNIUS, 12.
“Unus homo nobis cunctando restituit rem;
Non ponebat enim rumores ante salutem.
Ergo postque magisque viri nunc gloria claret(212).”
VIRGIL, 6.
“Unus qui nobis cunctando restituis rem.”
ENNIUS, 5.
“Quod per amœnam urbem leni fluit agmine flumen.”
VIRGIL, 2.
“Inter opima virum leni fluit agmine Tybris.”
ENNIUS, 1.
“Hei mihi qualis erat quantum mutatus ab illo.”
VIRGIL, 2.
“Hei mihi qualis erat! quantum mutatus ab illo.”
ENNIUS.
—— “Postquam discordia tetra
Belli ferratos postes portasque refregit(213).”
VIRGIL, 7.
“Impulit ipsa manu portas, et cardine verso
Belli ferratos rupit Saturnia postes.”
In the longer passages, Virgil has not merely selected the happiest
thoughts and expressions of his predecessor, but in borrowing a great deal
from Ennius, he has added much of his own. He has thrown on common images
new lights of fancy; he has struck out the finest ideas from ordinary
sentiments, and expunged all puerile conceits and absurdities.
Lucretius and Ovid have also frequently availed themselves of the works of
Ennius. His description of felling the trees of a forest, in order to fit
out a fleet against the Carthaginians, in the seventh book, has been
imitated by Statius in the tenth book of the _Thebaid_. The passage in his
sixth satire, in which he has painted the happy situation of a parasite,
compared with that of the master of a feast, is copied in Terence’s
Phormio(214). The following beautiful lines have been imitated by
innumerable poets, both ancient and modern:
“Jupiter hic risit, tempestatesque serenæ
Riserunt omnes risu Jovis omnipotentis(215).”
Near the commencement of his _Annals_, Ennius says,
“Audire est operæ pretium, procedere recte
Qui rem Romanam Latiumque augescere vultis;”
which solemn passage has been parodied by Horace, in the second satire of
the first book:
“Audire est operæ pretium, procedere recte
Qui mœchis non vultis, ut omni parte laborent.”
Thus it appears that Ennius occasionally produced verses of considerable
harmony and beauty, and that his conceptions were frequently expressed
with energy and spirit. It must be recollected, however, that the lines
imitated by Virgil, and the other passages which have been here extracted
from the works of Ennius, are very favourable specimens of his taste and
genius. Sometimes poems, which have themselves been lost, and of which
only fragments are preserved, in the citations of contemporary or
succeeding authors, are now believed to have been finer productions than
they perhaps actually were. It is the best passages which are quoted, and
imitated, and are thus upborne on the tide of ages, while the grosser
parts have sunk and perished in the flood. We are in this manner led to
form an undue estimate of the excellence of the whole, in the same manner
as we doubtless conceive an exaggerated idea of the ancient magnificence
of Persepolis or Palmyra, where, while the humble dwellings have mouldered
into dust, the temples and pyramids remain, and all that meets the eye is
towering and majestic. A few, however, even of the verses of Ennius which
have been preserved, are very harsh, and defective in their mechanical
construction; others are exceedingly prosaic, as,
“Egregie cordatus homo Catus Ælius Sextus;”
and not a few are deformed with the most absurd conceits, not so much in
the idea, as in a jingle of words and extravagant alliteration. The
ambiguity of the celebrated verse,
“Aio te Æacida Romanos vincere posse,”
may be excused as oracular, but what can be said for such lines as,
“Haud doctis dictis certantes sed maledictis.
O Tite tute Tate tibi tanta tyranne tulisti.
Stultus est qui cupida cupiens cupienter cupit.”
This species of conceit was rejected by the good taste of subsequent Latin
poets, even in the most degraded periods of literature; and I know no
parallel to it, except in some passages of Sidney’s Arcadia. Nothing can
be a greater mistake, than to suppose that false taste and jingle are
peculiar to the latter ages of poetry, and that the early bards of a
country are free from _concetti_.
On the whole, the works of Ennius are rather pleasing and interesting, as
the early blossoms of that poetry which afterwards opened to such
perfection, than estimable from their own intrinsic beauty. To many
critics the latter part of Ovid’s observation,
“Ennius ingenio maximus—arte rudis,”
has appeared better founded than the first. Scaliger, however, has termed
him, “Poeta antiquus magnifico ingenio: Utinam hunc haberemus integrum, et
amisissemus Lucanum, Statium, Silium Italicum, _et tous ces garcons
la_(216).” Quintilian has happily enough compared the writings of Ennius
to those sacred groves hallowed by their antiquity, and which we do not so
much admire for their beauty, as revere with religious awe and dread(217).
Hence, if we cannot allow Ennius to be crowned with the poetical laurel,
we may at least grant the privilege conceded to him by Propertius—
“Ennius hirsutâ cingat sua tempora quercu.”
Politian, in his _Nutricia_, has recapitulated the events of the life of
Ennius, and has given perhaps the most faithful summary of his character,
both as a man and a poet—
“Bella horrenda tonat Romanorumque triumphos,
Inque vicem nexos per carmina degerit annos:
Arte rudis, sed mente potens, parcissimus oris,
Pauper opum, fidens animi, morumque probatus,
Contentusque suo, nec bello ignarus et armis.”
But whatever may have been the merits of the works of Ennius, of which we
are now but incompetent judges, they were at least sufficiently various.
Epic, dramatic, satiric, and didactic poetry, were all successively
attempted by him; and we also learn that he exercised himself in lighter
sorts of verse, as the epigram and acrostic(218). For this novelty and
exuberance it is not difficult to account. The fountains of Greek
literature, as yet untasted in Latium, were to him inexhaustible sources.
He stood in very different circumstances from those Greek bards who had to
rely solely on their own genius, or from his successors in Latin poetry,
who wrote after the best productions of Greece had become familiar to the
Romans. He was placed in a situation in which he could enjoy all the
popularity and applause due to originality, without undergoing the labour
of invention, and might rapidly run with success through every mode of the
lyre, without possessing incredible diversity of genius.
The above criticisms apply to the poetical productions of Ennius; but the
most curious point connected with his literary history is his prose
translation of the celebrated work of Euhemerus, entitled, Ἱερα Αναγραφη.
Euhemerus is generally supposed to have been an inhabitant of Messene, a
city of Peloponnesus. Being sent, as he represented, on a voyage of
discovery by Cassander, King of Macedon, he came to an island called
Panchaia, in the capital of which, Panara, he found a temple of the
Tryphilian Jupiter, where stood a column inscribed with a register of the
births and deaths of many of the gods. Among these, he specified Uranus,
his sons Pan and Saturn, and his daughters Rhea and Ceres; as also
Jupiter, Juno, and Neptune, who were the offspring of Saturn. Accordingly,
the design of Euhemerus was to show, by investigating their actions, and
recording the places of their births and burials, that the mythological
deities were mere mortal men, raised to the rank of gods on account of the
benefits which they had conferred on mankind,—a system which, according to
Meiners and Warburton, formed the grand secret revealed at the initiation
into the Eleusinian mysteries(219). The translation by Ennius, as well as
the original work, is lost; but many particulars concerning Euhemerus, and
the object of his history, are mentioned in a fragment of Diodorus
Siculus, preserved by Eusebius. Some passages have also been saved by St.
Augustine; and long quotations, have been made by Lactantius, in his
treatise _De Falsa Religione_. These, so far as they extend, may be
regarded as the truest and purest sources of mythological history, though
not much followed in our modern _Pantheons_.
Plutarch, who was associated to the priesthood, and all who were
interested in the support of the vulgar creed, maintained, that the whole
work of Euhemerus, with his voyage to Panchaia, was an impudent fiction;
and, in particular, it was urged, that no one except Euhemerus had ever
seen or heard of the land of Panchaia(220): that the Panchaia Tellus had
indeed been described in a flowery and poetical style, both by Diodorus
Siculus and Virgil—
“Totaque thuriferis Panchaia pinguis arenis(221).”
but not in such a manner as to determine its geographical position.
The truth, however, of the relation contained in the work of Euhemerus,
has been vindicated by modern writers; who have attempted to prove that
Panchaia was an island of the Red Sea, which Euhemerus had actually
visited in the course of his voyage(222). But whether Euhemerus merely
recorded what he had seen, or whether the whole book was a device and
contrivance of his own, it seems highly probable that the translation of
Ennius gave rise to the belief of many Roman philosophers, who maintained,
or insinuated, their conviction of the mortality of the gods, and whose
writings have been so frequently appealed to by Farmer, in his able
disquisition on the prevalence of the Worship of Human Spirits.
It is clear, that notwithstanding their observance of prodigies and
religious ceremonies, there prevailed a considerable spirit of
free-thinking among the Romans in the age of Ennius. This is apparent, not
merely from his translation of Euhemerus, and definition of the nature of
Jupiter, in his _Epicharmus_, but from various passages in dramas adapted
for public representation, which deride the superstitions of augurs and
soothsayers, as well as the false ideas entertained of the worshipped
divinities. Polybius, too, who flourished shortly after Ennius, speaks of
the fear of the gods, and the inventions of augury, merely as an excellent
political engine, at the same time that he reprehends the rashness and
absurdity of those who were endeavouring to extirpate such useful
opinions(223).
The dramatic career which had been commenced by Livius Andronicus and
Ennius, was most successfully prosecuted by
PLAUTUS,