Aetolians; xvi.-xviii., from
Istrian War to beginning of Third Macedonian War.

_Ennius' services_ to Latin literature lay partly in introducing the
use of the hexameter and other metres from Greek in place of the old
Saturnian metre. His versification is, of course, rough in comparison
with that of later writers, the principal points being

(1) Harsh elisions. _Ann._ l. 199,

'Hos et ego in pugna vici victusque sum ab isdem.'

(2) Quadrisyllable endings; l. 23,

'Est locus Hesperiam quam mortales perhibebant.'

(3) Absence of caesura, or abrupt break, l. 188,

'Bellipotentes sunt magis quam sapientipotentes';

l. 511,

'Cui par imber et ignis, spiritus et gravis terra.'

(4) Omission of _-s_ in scansion, as in the last two examples.

(5) Short vowels sometimes lengthened; l. 86,

'Omnibus cura viris uter esset induperator.'

(6) Prosaic lines (often spondaic); l. 34,

'Olli respondit rex Albai longai';

l. 174,

'Cives Romani tunc facti sunt Campani.'

(7) Harsh instances of tmesis; l. 586,

'Saxo cere comminuit brum':

l. 605,

'Massili portabant iuvenes ad litora tanas.'

(8) Apocope; l. 451

'replet te laetificum _gau_';

l. 561,

'divom domus altisonum _cael_';

l. 563,

'endo suam _do_' (= in suam domum).

(9) Alliteration used freely; l. 113,

'O Tite tute Tati tibi tanta tiranne tulisti';

l. 452,

'At tuba terribili sonitu taratantara dixit.'

(10) Non-elision; l. 275,

'Miscent inter sese inimicitiam agitantes.'

_Influence of Ennius._--This is seen in Lucretius, and to a very great
extent in Virgil. For Lucretius' appreciation of Ennius see Lucr. i.
117-9. Cf. also _Ann._ l. 150,

'Postquam lumina sis oculis bonus Ancus reliquit,'

and Lucr. iii. 1025,

'Lumina sis oculis etiam bonus Ancus reliquit.'

Servius on Verg. _Aen._ viii. 630-4, says 'Sane totus hic locus
Ennianus est.' Cf. Servius also on _Aen._ i. 20; xi. 608, etc. A large
number of imitations are quoted by Macrobius, especially in _Saturn._
Book vi. Virgil modified and refined many of Ennius' rough
expressions. Thus _Ann._ l. 452 (above quoted), becomes, in Verg.
_Aen._ ix. 503,

'At tuba terribilem sonitum procul aere sonoro
increpuit';

_Ann._ l. 464,

'irarumque effunde quadrigas'

becomes in Verg. _Aen._ xii. 499,

'irarumque omnes effundit habenas.'

_Views on Ennius._--A very few of these may be quoted. Lucr. i. 117-9,

'Ennius ut nost