A younger contemporary of Nrevius was Titus Maccius Plautus (e.254-184 n.c.), whose sur passing importance for us rests on the fact that no fewer than twenty of his plays have sur vived in whole or in part. hence, while our estimate of early Roman tragedies must be based almost wholly on the testimony of ancient writers, that of Roman comedies is drawn from original sources; for besides the twenty plays of Plautus we have also six by his more polished successor, Terence. Plautus, like all the great Latin writers, was not a native of Rome. He was born at Sarsina, a small town of Umbria, in poor circumstances, but early came to Rome, where he secured employment as a stage-car penter. How he got his Latin education is a mystery, especially as he is said to have lost his savings in speculation and even to have worked in a treadmill to tide over his financial troubles. None the less, his literary activity continued unabated until his death in n.c. IS4. His popu larity was very great ; and, as is so apt to hap pen, many plays were foisted on him, in later times, that were not from his pen. In the Ciceronian age, the scholar and critic Varro (see below) selected from the large number that passed under Plantus's name a list of twenty-one as genuine. They include all those that arc still extant (.1 mph it rue, :1 Nina ria, A ululur ia, Bac ch ides, C'apriri, Cnreutia, Casino EpidicuR, -11osfgpagfa, s11encreh ui. Glorio sus, it creator, Pseudo! us, Pall ul us, 1'c-7-Nu , uelens, St ie.!! us, Preen!, nt u s), and the l'iduluria that was lost in the :%liddle Ages.
From the crude beginnings of a Livius An dronienA and the talented but experimental plays of a Na'N'ills to the well-developed art of Plautus is a long step, but it was aeeomplished within a single generation. This is partly due to tile source from Nvhieli Plautus drew Ids plots. hut largely also to the versatile genius of the man himself, and his command of the cumbersome Latin language, as then spoken, which he molded to the Iambic senarii and septcnarii with such ease as to create a new Latin poetry that has stood the test of time. His sources in Greek were the plays of the New Attic comedy, and especially the works (now lost) of Menander, Diphilus, and Philemon—comedies from which the strong personal and political satire of Aristophanes was perforce wholly expunged. But while the plots and scenes are Greek, and even the titles can often be identified with those of the Greek playwright, Plautus shows his own originality in all his work. Ile knew his audknee, and his plays are brim-full of situations and humorous touches that could not fail to appeal to his contemporaries; while still to-day the best of them. where they do not offend modern taste, afford delightful reading, and have influenced not a little modern poetry from :Shakespeare to Moliere. Among the best are the A niphitrito, the sole surviving example of the ancient tragi-comedy. an inimitable burlesque which even the genius of Moliere could not re produce; the Duo-hides with its masterly plot and characters; the ('aptiri, which though sen timental is wholly without female characters; the Mentrehmi, a charming comedy of errors; the Miles Gloriosus, laughable from beginning to end; the Rudens, a merry romance; and the Trinummus. also without female characters, a
lively comedy of virtuous middle-class life. These plays represent Plautus at his best; though he wrote for a peculiar and not highly cultured audience, his genius was broad and deep, and he stamped his work with a permanent interest and Tt was now an age of great names in literary Rome. Quintus Ennius (n.c. 239-169), born at -about the same time as Plautus. attained even a greater fame among his countrymen and was honored with the title 'Father of Roman Poetry.' Born at the village of Rudiae, in Calabria, he fought in the Roman army in Sardinia. where the bright young man attracted the notice of M. Por•ius Cato, who brought him with him to Rome; and during a long and active life wholly devoted to literary pursuits, Ennius wrote an astonishing number of poetical works, includ ing tragedies. comedies, a great national epic. and miscellanies. But notwithstanding, his fame and popularity—Cieero was among his most ardent admirers—only the very barest fragments of his writings have survived, quoted here and there in other authors. Ilis earlier work was mainly translations from the Greek, both trage dies and comedies. notably sonic of the tragedies of Euripides. His miscellanies, in a variety of metres, received the name Saturn, and were the first of a series of 'medleys' which by a ,gradual development culminated in real .Yatires, as the word is used to-day. But the greatest work of Ennius was his _Innales, in eighteen books, an epic in hexameter verse of the chief events in Roman tradition and history from the earliest times to his own. Of course, Homer was hi; model, and the innales fell far short of the 'Homeric perfection. The clumsy Latin had to be remolded, as it were, to the easy flow of the Greek metre. The difficulties were of the great est. but according to the almost universal judg ment of his successors his Annolcs was a master piece. which only the deeper study of Greek models and the genius of a Vergil eould replace. While the story of Rome was thus being writ ten in' verse, we find also au attempt at the ele ments of history in prose. Doubtless simple ac counts of yearly events, of the victories and defeats, the imposing triumphs, the succession of high civil officers, had long been drawn up in a formal way without any embellishment. The first important prose annalist was Q. Fabius Pictor (born about 254 who wrote, how ever, in Greek. under the title of 'Taroria; but his work was early translated into Latin. It covered about the same period as the A nnalcs of Ennius, that is, from the traditional landing of _Rheas in Italy to his own time, narrating in some detail the events of the Second Punic War, during which he was alive. Both the Greek original and its Latin version are lost; but Poly bins and Livy both drew upon him materially for their amounts of the Punk War. llis style was crude. and lie is censured for his unfairness as an historian.