Ennius - wikipedia Ennius Quintus Ennius ( / ˈkwɪntəs ˈɛniəs / ; c. 239 -- c. 169 BC ) was a writer and poet who lived during the Roman Republic. He is often considered the father of Roman poetry. He was an Oscan ( a linguistic group of peoples who lived in parts of central and southern Italy ) from Calabria ( the ancient name for the Salento, the peninsula which forms southern Apulia ). Although only fragments of his works survive, his influence in Latin literature was significant, particularly in his use of Greek literary models. Contents 1 Biography 2 See also 3 References 4 Editions 5 Further reading 6 External links Biography. Ny Carlsberg Glyptothek Copenhagen. Double herm with the portrait of the Roman poets Virgil or Ennius Ennius was born at Rudiae, a predominantly Oscan town historically founded by the Messapians. Here Oscan, Greek, and Latin languages were in contact with one another ; according to Aulus Gellius 17.17. 1, Ennius referred to this heritage by saying he had `` three hearts, '' Greek, Oscan and Latin ( Quintus Ennius tria corda habere sese dicebat, quod loqui Graece et Osce et Latine sciret ). Ennius continued the nascent literary tradition by writing praetextae, tragedies, and palliatae, as well as his most famous work, a historic epic called the Annales. Other minor works include the Epicharmus, the Euhemerus, the Hedyphagetica, and Saturae. The Epicharmus presented an account of the gods and the physical operations of the universe. In it, the poet dreamed he had been transported after death to some place of heavenly enlightenment. The Euhemerus presented a theological doctrine of a vastly different type in a mock - simple prose style modelled on the Greek of Euhemerus of Messene and several other theological writers. According to this doctrine, the gods of Olympus were not supernatural powers still actively intervening in the affairs of men, but great generals, statesmen and inventors of olden times commemorated after death in extraordinary ways. The Hedyphagetica took much of its substance from the gastronomical epic of Archestratus of Gela. The eleven extant hexameters have prosodical features avoided in the more serious Annales. The remains of six books of Saturae show a considerable variety of metres. There are signs that Ennius varied the metre sometimes even within a composition. A frequent theme was the social life of Ennius himself and his upper - class Roman friends and their intellectual conversation. The Annales was an epic poem in fifteen books, later expanded to eighteen, covering Roman history from the fall of Troy in 1184 BC down to the censorship of Cato the Elder in 184 BC. It was the first Latin poem to adopt the dactylic hexameter metre used in Greek epic and didactic poetry, leading it to become the standard metre for these genres in Latin poetry. The Annals became a school text for Roman schoolchildren, eventually supplanted by Virgil 's Aeneid. About 600 lines survive. A copy of the work is among the Latin rolls of the Herculaneum library. Ennius was said to have considered himself a reincarnation of Homer. Early in the poem Homer appears to the narrator, claiming that Ennius now has Homer 's soul, which has also once been a peacock ( frr. 4 - 14 Warmington, scholia to Perseus 6.9 - 11 ). See also Prosody ( Latin ) References Jump up ^ Smith, William ( 1854 ), `` Rhudiae '', Smith 's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, London : `` That author is repeatedly termed a Calabrian ( Her. Carm. 4.8 ; Ovid. A.A. 3.409 ; Sil. Ital. l.c. ; Acron, ad Hor. l.c. ) '' Jump up ^ Young Sellar, William, The Roman Poets of the Republic, Cambridge University Press, 2011, ISBN 978 - 1 - 108 - 02982 - 7, p. 64 : an old Italian town ( the epithet `` vetustae '' is applied to it by Silius ) which had been partially Hellenised, but still retained its native traditions and the use of the Oscan language Jump up ^ `` FJCL Latin Literature Study Guide '' ( PDF ). Florida Junior Classical League. Retrieved 2 March 2014. Jump up ^ Michael Grant, in a footnote to `` On the Good Life '' by Cicero, Penguin Books, 1971. Editions Quinto Ennio. Le opere minori, Vol. I. Praecepta, Protrepticus, Saturae, Scipio, Sota. Ed., tr., comm. Alessandro Russo. Pisa : Edizioni ETS, 2007 ( Testi e studi di cultura classic, 40 ). Warmington, E.H. ( 1935 ). Ennius ( Q. Ennius ). Remains of Old Latin. Edited by Eric Herbert Warmington. Vol. 2 : Ennius and Caecilius. Cambridge : Harvard University Press. `` The template below ( Library resources box ) is being considered for deletion. See templates for discussion to help reach a consensus. '' Library resources about Ennius Online books Resources in your library Resources in other libraries By Ennius Online books Resources in your library Resources in other libraries Further reading Aicher, P. ( 1989 ). Ennius ' Dream of Homer. The American Journal of Philology, 110 ( 2 ), 227 - 232. Bettini, M. ( 1979 ). Studi e note su Ennio. Pisa : Giardini. Brooks, R.A. ( 1981 ). Ennius and Roman Tragedy. New York : Arno Press. ISBN 0 - 405 - 14030 - 4. Elliott, J. ( 2009 ). Ennius ' ' Cunctator ' and the History of a Gerund in the Roman Historiographical Tradition. The Classical Quarterly, 59 ( 2 ), 532 - 542. Elliott, J. ( 2010 ). `` Ennius as Universal Historian : The Case of the Annales. '' Historiae Mundi : Studies in Universal History. Ed. Peter Liddel and Andrew Fear. London : Bloomsbury Academic, 148 -- 161. Evans, R.L.S. ( 1999 ). `` Ennius ''. In Briggs, Ward. Ancient Roman Writers. Dictionary of Literary Biography. 211. Fisher, J. ( 2014 ). The ' Annals ' of Quintus Ennius and the Italic Tradition. Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press. Fitzgerald, W., and Emily Gowers, eds. ( 2007 ). Ennius Perennis. The Annals and Beyond. Proceedings of the Cambridge Philolological Society, Supplementary Volume 31. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press. Goldberg, S.M. ( 1995 ). Epic in Republican Rome. New York : Oxford University Press. ISBN 0 - 19 - 509372 - 0. Goldberg, S. ( 1989 ). Poetry, Politics, and Ennius. Transactions of the American Philological Association 119 : 247 -- 261. Goldschmidt, N. ( 2012 ). Absent Presence : Pater Ennius in Renaissance Europe, Classical Receptions Journal, 4 ( 1 ), 1 -- 19. Goldschmidt, N. ( 2013 ). Shaggy Crowns : Ennius ' Annales and Virgil 's Aeneid. Oxford : Oxford University Press. Jocelyn, H.D. Ennius ( Q. Ennius ). ( 1967 ). The Tragedies of Ennius : The Fragments. Edited by Henry David Jocelyn. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press. Jocelyn, H.D. ( 1972 ). The Poems of Quintus Ennius. Aufstieg und Niedergang der Römischen Welt 1.2. Edited by Hildegard Temporini, 987 -- 1026. Morgan, L. ( 2014 ). A Metrical Scandal in Ennius. The Classical Quarterly, 64 ( 1 ), 152 -- 159. Cambridge University Press. Sciarrino, E. ( 2006 ). The Introduction of Epic in Rome : Cultural Thefts and Social Contests. Arethusa 39 : 449 -- 469. Skutsch, O. ( 1968 ). Studia Enniana. London : Athlone. Skutsch, O. Ennius ( Q. Ennius ). ( 1985 ). The Annals of Q. Ennius. Oxford : Clarendon. External links Quotations related to Ennius at Wikiquote Latin Wikisource has original text related to this article : Ennius Media related to Ennius at Wikimedia Commons Fragments of Ennius ' Annals at The Latin Library ; text from Wordsworth ( 1874 ), line numbering from Warmington ( 1935 ) Ennius ' Annales : text and translation of all fragments at attalus.org ; adapted from Warmington ( 1935 ) Ennius : translation of selected fragments at elfinspell.com ; from Specimens of the Poets and Poetry of Greece and Rome by Various Translators ( 1847 ) Remains of old latin. Vol. 1 : Aennius and Caecilius, E.H. Warmington ( a cura di ), Cambridge - London, 1935, pagg. 1 - 465. 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Question: who was known as the father of roman poetry and wrote annales an epic poem about the history of rome
Answer: Quintus Ennius