Q. Ennius
The father of Latin poetry
239 BC – 169 BC
Quintus Ennius was born in 239 BC in Rudiae, in Calabria, at the heel of Italy — a region where Greek, Latin, and Oscan cultures intersected. He claimed to have three hearts, one for each language he spoke. He came to Rome around 204 BC, brought by Cato the Elder, and spent the rest of his life there, teaching, writing, and drinking — the ancient sources agree on the drinking.
His masterwork was the Annales, an epic poem in eighteen books tracing the history of Rome from the fall of Troy to his own time. It was the first major poem in Latin hexameters — Ennius introduced the Greek metre that would become the standard for Latin epic, replacing the native Saturnian verse. The poem was the Roman national epic until Virgil's Aeneid superseded it. About 600 lines survive in quotation by later authors — enough to show a poet of power, ambition, and considerable skill.
Ennius also wrote tragedies adapted from Greek originals, comedies, satires (he is credited with inventing the genre), and miscellaneous works. Virtually all are lost. His importance to Latin literature is comparable to Chaucer's to English: he did not merely write in the language, he helped to create it as a literary medium. Cicero, Virgil, and Lucretius all acknowledged their debt to him.
An epic poem in eighteen books tracing the history of Rome from the fall of Troy to Ennius's own time. The foundational work of Latin literary epic, written in hexameters that Ennius introduced to replace the native Saturnian metre.
Originally: 18 books. Surviving: ~600 lines preserved in quotation by later authors.
Fragments collected in Skutsch, The Annals of Q. Ennius (Oxford, 1985)
Miscellaneous poems in various metres, considered the earliest example of Roman satire as a literary form.
Originally: 4-6 books. Surviving: A few dozen lines in fragments.
Warmington, Remains of Old Latin, vol. I
Adaptations of Greek tragedies, including plays on the Trojan cycle (Achilles, Ajax, Hecuba, Iphigenia) and other mythological subjects. About twenty titles are known.
Originally: ~20 plays. Surviving: ~400 lines in fragments.
Collected in Warmington, Remains of Old Latin, vol. I