cius_, and _Brutus_. _Decius_
treated of the self-sacrifice of P. Decius Mus at Sentinum, B.C. 295.
Cf. l. 15, 'Patrio exemplo et me dicabo atque animam devoro (=
devovero) hostibus.' _Brutus_ treated of the overthrow of Tarquinius
Superbus and the establishment of the consulship.
3. _Didascalica_, in at least nine books, a history of Greek and Latin
poetry, with special attention to the drama. The few fragments are
mostly in Sotadean metre. Cf. Gell. vi. 9, 16, 'L. Accius in
Sotadicorum libro I.'
4. _Pragmaticon libri_ (in trochaic tetrameters) on literary subjects.
5. _Praxidica_, on agriculture. Two lines on ploughing are quoted from
'liber parergon,' i., but it is not certain whether this is an
independent work.
6. _Annales_, in hexameters.
7. A work in Saturnians.
Accius gave attention to points of language. Cf. Quint. i. 7, 14,
'Semivocales geminare diu non fuit usitatissimi moris, atque e
contrario usque ad Accium et ultra porrectas syllabas geminis, ut
dixi, vocalibus scripserunt.'
Accius, like Ennius and Pacuvius, attacks superstition. Cf. ll. 169-70,
'Nil credo auguribus, qui auris verbis divitant
alienas, suas ut auro locupletent domos.'
That Virgil imitated Accius is mentioned by Macrob. vi. 1, 58, who
compares, _e.g._, l. 156,
'Virtuti sis par, dispar fortunis patris,'
and _Aen._ xii. 435-6,
'Disce, puer, virtutem ex me verumque laborem,
fortunam ex aliis.'
_Views on Accius._--A few of these may be referred to. Cic. _pro
Sest._ 120, 'Summi poetae ingenium.' Ovid. _Am._ i. 15, 19,
'Animosi Accius oris.'
Cf. also Quint. x. 1, 97; Tac. _Dial._ 20; and Hor. _Ep._ ii. 1, 55
(see 'Pacuvius,' p. 37).
Of the prose writers contemporary with Accius, the most important were
the annalists _L. Cassius Hemina_ and _L. Calpurnius Piso Frugi_; the
orators _Ti._ and _C. Graccus_, and their opponent _C. Fannius_, and
_M. Aemilius Scaurus_, the _princeps senatus_, who also wrote an
autobiography (Cic. _Brut._ 112). _L. Coelius Antipater_ wrote a
history of the Second Punic War in seven Books, making use of Silenus,
whose account was favourable to the Carthaginians (Cic. _de Div._ i.
49). His strength lay in style (Cic. _de Or._ ii. 53); though
painstaking, he was apt to exaggerate (Liv. xxvii. 27, 12; xxix, 25,
3).
LUCILIUS.
(1) LIFE.
C. Lucilius' dates are given by Jerome as B.C. 148-103.
yr. Abr. 1869 = B.C. 148, 'Lucilius poeta nascitur.'
yr. Abr. 1914 =
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