Ennius’ Saturae and the Registers of Personal Poetry

This chapter investigates the diction of the fragments attributed to Ennius’ Saturae by ancient sources and conjecturally by modern editors. While thirty or so transmitted lines naturally do not permit one to paint a conclusive picture of Ennius’ experiment, a little more can be said about the relationship between his Saturae and those of Lucilius, and ultimately about Ennius’ role in the introduction of personal poetry at Rome. Monologic and dialogic utterances and the mixture of metres (iambo-trochaic, hexameter, Sotadean) and registers (comic, informal, mock-epic) will be discussed, using Lucilius as a comparandum . Attention is paid to “early” features of language and style, with reference to Ennius’ diction in his epic and dramatic works.

Feature (linguistics) · Narrative · Poetry · Augustinian Studies and Theology · Classical Antiquity Studies · Renaissance and Early Modern Studies