whom the Romans ever regarded with a sort of filial reverence as the parent of their literature--noster Ennius, our own Ennius, as he is styled with fond familiarity--was born in the consulship of C. Mamilius Turrinus and C. Valerius Falto, B. C. 239, the year immediately following that in which the first regular drama had been exhibited on the Roman stage by Livius Andronicus. The place of his nativity was Rudiae, a Calabrian village among the hills near Brundusium. He claimed descent from the ancient lords of Messapia; and after he had become a convert to the Pythagorean doctrines, was wont to boast that the spirit which had once animated the body of the immortal Homer, after passing through many tenements, after residing among others in a peacock, and in the sage of Crotona, had eventually passed into his own frame. Of his early history we know nothing, except, if we can trust the loose poetical testimony of Silius and Claudian, that he served with credit as a soldier, and rose to the rank of a centurion. When M. Porcius Cato, who had filled the office of quaestor under Scipio in the African war, was returning home, he found Ennius in Sardinia, became acquainted with his high powers, and brought him in his train to Rome, our poet being at that time about the age of thirty-eight. But his military ardour was not yet quenched; for twelve years afterwards he accompanied M. Fulvius Nobilior during the Aetolian campaign, and shared his triumph. It is recorded that the victorious general, at the instigation probably of his literary friend, consecrated the spoils captured from the enemy to the Muses, and subsequently, when Censor, dedicated a joint temple to Hercules and the Nine. Through the son of Nobilior, Ennius, when fir advanced in life, obtained the rights of a citizen, a privilege which at that epoch was guarded with watchful jealousy, and very rarely granted to an alien. From the period, however, when he quitted Sardinia, he seems to have made Rome his chief abode; for there his great poetical talents, and an amount of learning which must have been considered marvellous in those days, since he was master of three languages,--Oscan, Latin, and Greek,--gained for him the respect and favour of all who valued such attainments ; and, in particular, he lived upon terms of the closest intimacy with the conqueror of Hannibal and other members of that distinguished family. Dwelling in a humble mansion on the Aventine, attended by a single female slave, he maintained himself in honourable poverty by acting as a preceptor to patrician youths; and having lived on happily to a good age, was carried off by a disease of the joints, probably gout, when seventy years old, soon after the completion of his great undertaking, which he closes by comparing himself to a race-horse, in these prophetic lines :--

Like some brave steed, who in his latest race Hath won the Olympic wreath; the contest o'er, Sinks to repose, worn out by age and toil.

At the desire of Africanus, his remains were deposited in the sepulchre of the Scipios, and his bust allowed a place among the effigies of that noble house. His epitaph, penned by himself in the undoubting anticipation of immortal fame, has been preserved, and may be literally rendered thus :-- Romans, behold old Ennius! whose laysBuilt up on high your mighty fathers' praise!Pour not the wail of mourning o'er my bier,Nor pay to me the tribute of a tear:Still, still I live ! from mouth to mouth I fly !Never forgotten never shall I die !

The works of Ennius are believed to have existed entire so late as the thirteenth century (A. G. Cramer, Hauschronick, p. 223), but they have long since disappeared as an independent whole, and nothing now remains but fragments collected from other ancient writers. These amount in all to many hundred lines; but a large proportion being quotations cited by grammarians for the purpose of illustrating some rare form, or determining the signification of sonic obsolete word, are mere scraps, possessing little interest for any one but a philologist. Some extracts of a longer and more satisfactory character are to be found in Cicero, who gives us from the annals,--the dream of Hia (18 lines); the conflicting auspices observed by Romulus and Remus (20 lines); and the speech of Pyrrhus with regard to ransoming the prisoners (8 lines) : besides these, a passage from the Andromache (18 lines); a curious invective against itinerant fortune-tellers, probably from the Satires ; and a few others of less importance. Aulus Gellius has saved eighteen consecutive verses, in which the duties and bearing of a humble friend towards his superior are bodied forth in very spirited phraseology, forming a picture which it was believed that the poet intended for a portrait of hiself, while Macrobius presents us with a battlepiece (8 lines), where a tribune is described as gallantly resisting the attack of a crowd of foes.

Although under these circumstances it is extremely difficult to form any accurate judgment with regard to his absolute merits as a poet, we are at least certain that his success was triumphant. For a long series of years his strains were read aloud to applauding multitudes, both in the metropolis and in the provinces; and a class of men arose who, in imitation of the Homeristae, devoted themselves exclusively to the study and recitation of his works, receiving the appellation of Ennianistae. In the time of Cicero he was still considered the prince of Roman song (Ennium summum Epicum poetam--de Opt. G. O. 1. Summus poeta noster--pro Balb. 22); Virgil was not ashamed to borrow many of his thoughts, and not a few of his expressions; and even the splendour of the Augustan age failed to throw him into the shade. And well did he merit the gratitude of his adopted countrymen; for not only did he lay the basis of their literature, but actually constructed their language. He found the Latin tongue a rough, meagre, uncultivated dialect, made up of ill-cemented fragments, gathered at random from a number of different sources, subject to no rules which might secure its stability, and destitute of any regular system of verification. He softened its asperities, he enlarged its vocabulary, he regulated its grammatical combinations, he amalgamated into one harmonious whole its various conflicting elements, and he introduced the heroic hexameter, and various other metres, long carefully elaborated by Grecian skill. Even in the disjointed and mutilated remains which have been transmitted to us, we observe a vigour of imagination, a national boldness of tone, and an energy of expression which amply justify the praises so liberally launched on his genius by the ancients; and although we are perhaps at first repelled by the coarseness, clumsiness, and antique fashion of the garb in which his high thoughts are invested, we cannot but feel that what was afterwards gained in smoothness and refinement is a poor compensation for the loss of that freshness and strength which breathe the hearty spirit of the brave old days of Roman simplicity and freedom. The criticism of Ovid," Ennius ingenio maximus arte rudis," is fair, and happily worded ; but the fine simile of Quintilian, " Ennium sicut sacros vetustate lucos adoremus, in quibus grandia et antiqua robora, jam non tantam habent speciem, quantam religionem," more fully embodies our sentiments.