d of Praeconinus because his father
had been a herald.

7 Menippus was originally a slave, a native of Gadara in Coele Syria,
and a pupil of Diogenes the Cynic. He became very rich by usury,
afterwards he lost his money and committed suicide. He wrote nothing
serious, but his books were entirely full of jests. We have some
fragments of Varro's Satyrae Menippeae, which were written, as we are
here told, in imitation of Menippus.

8 Cicero ranges these poets here in chronological order.

Ennius was born at Rudiae in Calabria, B.C. 239, of a very noble
family. He was brought to Rome by M. Porcius Cato at the end of the
second Punic war. His plays were all translations or adaptations
from the Greek; but he also wrote a poetical history of Rome called
Annales, in eighteen books, and a poem on his friend Scipio
Africanus; some Satires, Epigrams, and one or two philosophical
poems. Only a few lines of his works remain to us. He died at the
age of seventy.

Pacuvius was a native of Brundusium, and a relation, probably a
nephew, of Ennius. He was born about B.C. 220, and lived to about
the year B.C. 130. His works were nearly entirely tragedies
translated from the Greek. Horace, distinguishing between him and
Accius, says--

"Aufert
Pacuvius docti famam senis; Accius alti."--Epist. II. i. 55.

9 From {~GREEK SMALL LETTER PI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER PI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON WITH OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMEGA~}, to walk.

10 This Lucius Lucullus was the son of Lucius Licinius Lucullus, who
was praetor B.C. 103, and was appointed by the senate to take the
command in Sicily, where there was a formidable insurrection of the
slaves under Athenion and Tryphon. He was not however successful,
and was recalled; and subsequently prosecuted by Servilius for
bribery and malversation, convicted and banished. The exact time of
the birth of this Lucullus his son is not known, but was probably
about B.C. 109. His first appearance in public life was prosecuting
Servilius, who had now become an augur, on a criminal charge, (which
is what Cicero alludes to here.) And though the trial terminated in
the ac