A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

1136 NAEVIUS. NAEVIU$.
since Livy (xxxviii. 56) tells us that the speech Naevius was attached to the plebeian party; an
which Scipio delivered in his defence on the occa- opponent of the nobility, and inimical to the insion referred to, did not contain the name of the novations then making in the national literature.
accuser. (Meyer, Orator. Romnan. Fragsn. p. 6, These feelings he shared with Cato; and, though
&c., 2d ed.) the great censor was considerably his junior, it
5. SEXT. NAEViUS, a praeco, the accuser of P. is probable, as indeed we may infer from Cicero's
Quintius whom Cicero defended. (Cic. pro Quint. Cato (c. 14), that a friendship existed between
1, &C.) [QUINTIUS.] them. It was in his latter days, and when Cato
6. SER. NAEVIUS, a person defended by C. must have already entered upon public life, that
Curio against Cicero. (Cic. Brut. 60.) Naevius, with the licence of the old Attic comedy,
7. NxEVIus TURPIO, a quadruplator or public made the stage a vehicle for his attacks upon the
informer, was one of the unscrupulous agents of aristocracy. G-ellius (vi. 8) has preserved the folVerres in plundering the unhappy Sicilians. He lowing verses, where a little scandalous anecdote
had been previously condemned for injuriae by the respecting the elder Scipio is accompanied with
praetor C. Sacerdos. (Cic. Verr. ii. 8, iii. 39, 40, the praise justly due to his merits:v. 41.)
8. NAEVIUS POLLIO, a Roman citizen, who was Etiam qui res magnas manu saepe gessit gloriose,
stated by Cicero to have been a foot taller than the Cujus facta viva nunc vigent, qui apud gentes solus
tallest man that ever lived. This statement of praestat,
Cicero, which is quoted by Columella (iii. 8. ~ 2), Eum suus pater cum pallio uno ab amica abduxit.
was doubtless contained in his work entitled Admirzanda. Pliny also speaks (H. N. vii. 16) of These lines, a fragment probably of some interthe great height of this Naevius Pollio, but says lude, would have derived much of their piquancy
that the annals did not specify what his height from their contrast with the current story of
thwast the annls Idi not secify wat hisheightScipio's continence after the taking of Carthago
aCNs..NAEIUS. Of the life of this ancient Nova, in B.C. 210. Asconius (Cic. Verr. i. 10)
Roman poet but few particulars have been re-has preserved the following lampoon on the Mecorded. It has been commonly supposed that he
was a native of Campania, because Gellius (i. 24) Fato Metelli Romae fiunt consules;
characterises the epitaph which he composed upon
himself as " plenum superbiae Campanae." Kluss- where the insinuation is, as Cicero explains in
mann, however, the most recent editor of Naevius's the passage to which the note of Asconius refers,
fragments, thinks that he was a Roman, from the that the Metelli attained to the consular dignity,
circumstance of Cicero's alluding to him in the DIe not by any merit of their own, but through the
Oratose (iii. 12) as a model of pure elocution, and blind influence of fate. In what year could this
contends that no inference can be drawn from the attack have been made? From the way in which
mention of Campanian pride, which, as is shown the answer to it is recorded by Asconius, it would
by Cicero's speech,DeLegeAgr. (ii. 33), hadbecome seem to have been during the actual consulship
proverbial. But to this it may be objected, that of one of the family. (Cui tuna Metellus consul
in the passage of the De Oratore the name of iratus responderat senario hypercatalecto, qui et
Plautus, an Umbrian, is coupled with that of Saturnius dicitur,
Naevius; a fact which invalidates that argument Dabunt malum Metelli Naevio poetae).
for his Roman birth. And though the pride of the
Campanians may have become a proverb, it is diffi- It can hardly be doubted, therefore, that the person
cult to see how it could' with propriety be applied in question was Q. Caecilius Metellus, consul in
to any but those Gascons of ancient Italy. How- B. c. 206. The haughty aristocracy of Rome were
ever this may be, it is probable that Naevius was by no means disposed to let such attacks pass
at least brought early to Rome; but at what time unpunished. By the law of the Twelve Tables
cannot be said, as the date of his birth cannot be a libel was a capital offence, and Metellus carried
fixed with any accuracy. The fact, however, of his threat into execution by indicting Naevius.
his having died at an advanced age about the The poet escaped with his life, but was given
middle of the sixth century of Rome, may justify into the custody of the triumviri capitales (Gell.
us in placing his birth some ten or twenty years iii. 3); an imprisonment to which Plautus alludes
before the close of the preceding one, or somewhere in his Miles Gloriosus (ii. 2. 56). Confinement
between the years 274 and 264 B. c. And this brought repentance. Whilst in prison he comagrees well enough with what Gellius tells us posed two plays, the Har-iolus and Leon, in
(xvii. 21), on the authority of Varro, about his which he recanted his previous imputations, and
serving in theefirst Punic war, which began in 264 thereby obtained his release through the tribunes
B. C., and lasted twenty-four years. The first of the people. (Gell. 1. c.) His repentance,
literary attempts of Naevius were in the drama, however, did not last long, and he was soon comthen recently introduced at Rome by Livius An- pelled to expiate a new offence by exile. At that
dronicus. According to Gellius, in the passage time a man might choose his own place of banishjust cited, Naevius produced his first play in the ment, and Naevius fixed upon Utica. Here it
year of Rome 519, or B. C. 235. Gellius, however, was, probably, that he wrote his poem on the first
makes this event coincident with the divorce of Punic war, which, as we learn from Cicero (De
a certain Carvilius Ruga, which, in another passage Senect. 14), was the work of his old age; and here:(iv, 3) he places four years later (B. c. 231), but it is certain that he died; but as to the exact year
mentions wrong consuls. Dionysius (ii. 25) also there is some difference of opinion. According to
fixes the divorce of Carvilius at the latter date; Cicero (Brut. 15), his decease took place in the
Valerius Maximus (ii. 1) in B. C. 234. These consulship of Cethegus and Tuditanus, B. C. 204.
vrariations are too slight to be of much importance. As we learn, however, from the same passage that