ACCIUS or Arrius, LUCIUS, Roman tragic poet, the son of a freedman, was born at Pisaurum in Umbria, in B.C. He must have lived to a great age, since Cicero (Brutus, 28) speaks of having conversed with him. His plays, which are praised by ancient writers (Horace, Epistles, ii. 1, 56; Cicero, Pro Plancio, 24), were mostly free translations from the Greek, but a few (including Brutus and Decius) were on Roman subjects. About 700 lines are extant and are given in Ribbeck (Tragic Lat. Relig.).
Accius wrote other works of a literary character : Didascalic5n and Pragmatican libri, treatises in verse on the history of Greek and Roman poetry, and dramatic art in particular; Parerga and Praxidica (perhaps identical) on agriculture ; and an Annales. He also introduced innovations in orthography and grammar.
See Boissier, Le Poete Accius (1856) ; L. Muller, De Accii fabulis Disputatio (189o) ; Ribbeck, Geschichte der romischen Dichtung (1892) ; editions of the tragic fragments by Ribbeck (1897), of the others by Bahrens (1886) ; Plessis, Poesie latine (1909).