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ENNIUS' ANNALES
Ennius' view of history was moral, individualistic, and aristocratic: uirtus
was all; the safety of the common weal depended on individual uirtus; and
noblesse oblige. . .
unus homo nobis cunctando restituit rera.
noenum rumores ponebat ante salutem;
ergo postque magisque uiri nunc gloria claret...
(Ann. (12) 370-2 V = ROL 360-2)
One man restored us the commonwealth by delaying;
he would not put grumbling before our safety;
therefore his fame shines now the more in retrospect...
These famous lines on Fabius Maximus Cunctator express this attitude. Ennius
admired Rome like Polybius, but had no sophisticated analysis of its constitution
or society, other than to praise uirtus where he saw it, and to honour and
emphasize the antiquity of Roman institutions. He did this at a time when
society was faced with great internal and external changes. The Annales celebrated
and defined what the Romans of that time liked to think were the qualities
which had made them what they were, explained their place in the world, and
implied how they should continue. By linking myth to remote history, remote
to recent, and recent to the present, Ennius strengthened the community's sense
of continuity, hence its identity and purpose, and provided patterns of excellence
to which the young should aspire. The success of the poem was immediate and
remarkable. We are told that it was declaimed in public not long after Ennius'
death, as rhapsodes performed Homer, and for a century and a half it continued
to provide the classic definitions and examples of Roman attitudes and values.
It had a central place in the school curriculum. But epics, except Homer's,
become superannuated. They lose directness, for tastes in style and assumptions
about values change. Virgil displaced Ennius in the classroom, and, although
the antiquarians of the second century A.D. read Ennius, his manuscripts must
have been very rare by A.D. 500. His fragments were first printed in 1564;
Scaliger wrote of him ' Ennius, poeta egregius, magnifico ingenio. utinam hunc
haberemus integrum et amisissemus Lucanum, Statium, Silium, et tous ces
gar$ons-la. . . quamquam interdum alium olet, tamen optime animatus est'
'Ennius, an outstanding poet of great genius. If only we had him [i.e. the
Annales] whole, and had lost Lucan, Statius, Silius Italicus et tous ces garpons-la
. . .Although he sometimes smells of garlic, he has an excellent spirit.' Without
wishing ill to ' all those adolescents', we may agree with Scaliger that the loss of
Ennius' Annales is the most regrettable in all Latin literature.
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