EN'NIUS, QUINTUS ( B.C. 239-c.160 ) . An curly Roman poet, the father of the Roman epos. Ile was born at RuIliac, in Calabria, and was probably of Creek extraction. He is said to have served in the wars, and to have risen to the rank of a centurion. In Sardinia he became ac quainted with Cato the Elder, and returned with him to Rome, when about the age of thirty-eight. Here he gained for himself the friendship of the most eminent men, among others that of Scipio Africanus the Elder, and attained to the rank of a Roman citizen. He supported himself by in structing some young Romans of distinguished families in the Greek language and literature, his accurate knowledge of which explains the influ ence he had on the development of the Latin tongue. He died when he had attained the age of seventy, or about B.C. 169. His remains were interred in the tomb of the Scipios, and his bust was placed among those of that great family.
Enuins tried his powers in almost every species of poetry, and although his language and versification are rough and unpolished, these de fects are fully compensated for by the energy of his expressions and the fire of his poetry. Of his tragedies, comedies, satires, and particularly of his A uncles, an epos in IS books, only fragments are still extant. These have been collected and edited by various scholars, among others by Hes sel (Amsterdam, 1707). The fragments of the Anmiles have been edited by J. Vahlen (Leipzig, 1854) ; and Muller (Saint Petersburg. 1885). The few fragments of his dramas that have come down to us were collected by Ribbeck in his Bec•icce Rontamortrai Poesis Pruipnenta (2 vols., 1871-73). Consult: Sellar, Potaan Poets of the Republic (Oxford. 1881) ; and Mackail, Latin Literature (New York, 1896).