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

ENNIUS. ENNIUS. 17
sent him to sleep, that she might be able'to kiss enemy to the. Muses, and subsequently,' when
him without being observed by him. (Cic. Tuscul. Censor, dedicated a joint temple to Hercules and
i. 38.) The stories of the fair sleeper, Endymion, the Nine. Through the son of Nobilior, Ennius,
the darling of Selene, are unquestionably poetical when far advanced in life, obtained the rights of a
fictions, in which sleep is personified. His name citizen, a privilege which at that epoch was
and all his attributes confirm this opinion: Endy- guarded with watchful jealousy, and very rarely
mion signifies a being that gently comes over one; granted to an alien. From the period, however,
he is called a king, because he has power over all when he quitted Sardinia, he seems to'have made
living creatures; a shepherd, because he slumbered Rome his-chief abode; for there his great poetical
in the cool caves of mount Latmus, that is, " the talents, and an amount of learning which must
mount of oblivion." Nothing can be more beau- have been considered marvellous in those days,
tiful, lastly, than the notion, that he is kissed by since he was master of three languages, —Oscan,
the soft rays of the moon. (Comp. Plat. Phaed. p. Latin, and Greek,-gained for him the respect
72. b; Ov. Am. i. 13. 43.) There is a beautiful and favour of all who valued such attainments;
statue of a sleeping Endymion in the British and, in particular, he lived upon terms of the
Museum. [L. S.] closest intimacy with the conqueror of Hannibal
ENI'PEUS ('Evsrevs), a river-god in Thessaly, and other members of that distinguished family.
who was beloved by Tyro, the daughter of Salmo- Dwelling in a humble mansion on the Aventine,
neus. Poseidon, who was. in love with her, attended by a single female slave, he maintained
assumed the appearance of Enipeus, and thus himself in honourable poverty by acting as a previsited her, and she became by him the mother of ceptor to patrician youths; and having lived on
twins, Pelias and Neleus. (Apollod. i. 9. ~ 8.) happily to a good age, was carried off by a disease
Ovid (Met. vi. 116) relates that Poseidon, having of the joints, probably gout, when seventy years
assumed the form of Enipeus, begot by Iphimedeia old, soon after the completion of his great undertwo sons, Otus and Ephialtes. Another river-god taking, which he closes by comparing himself to a
of the same name occurs in Elis, who. is likewise race-horse, in these prophetic lines:connected with the legend about Tyro. (Strab. viii. Like some brave steed, who in his latest race
p. 356.) [L. S.] Hath won the Olympic wreath; the contest o'er,
E'NNIA, called ENNIA THRASYLLA by Dion Sinks to repose, worn out by age and-toil.
Cassius, and ENNIA NAEVIA by Suetonius, was the At the desire of Africanus, his remains were
wife of Macro and the mistress of Caligula. Her deposited in the sepulchre of the Scipios, and his
husband murdered Tiberius in order to accelerate bust allowed a place among the effigies of that.
the accession of Caligula; but this emperor, like a noble house. His epitaph, penned by himself in
true tyrant, disliking to see those to whom he was the undoubting anticipation of immortal fame, has
under obligation, put to death Ennia and her hus- been preserved, and may be literally rendered
band. (Dion. Cass. lviii. 28, lix. 10; Tac. Ann. thus:vi. 45; Suet. Cal. 12, 26.) Romans, behold old Ennius! whose lays
EN'NIUS, whom the Romans ever regarded Built up on high your mighty fathers' praise!
with a sort of filial reverence as the parent of Pour not the wail of mourning o'er my bier,
their literature-noster Ennius, our own Ennius, as Nor pay to me the tribute of a tear:
he is styled with fond familiarity-was born in the Still, still I live! from mouth to mouth I fly!
consulship of C. Mamilius Turrinus and C. Vale- Never forgotten, never shall I die!
rius Falto, B.c. 239, the year immediately follow- The works of Ennius are believed to have existing that in which the first regular drama had been ed entire so late as the thirteenth century (A. G.
exhibited on the Roman stage by Livius Androni- Cramer, Hauschronick, p. 223), but they have
cus. The place of his nativity was Rudiae, a long since disappeared as an independent whole,
Calabrian village among the hills near Brundu- and nothing now remains but fragments collected
slum. He claimed descent from the ancient lords from other ancient writers. These amount in all
of Messapia; and after he had become a convert to many hundred lines; but a large proportion
to the Pythagorean doctrines, was wont to boast being quotations cited by grammarians for the.
that the spirit which had once animated the body purpose of illustrating some raro form, or deterof the immortal Homer, after passing through mining the signification of some obsolete word, are
many tenements, after residing among others in a mere scraps, possessing little interest for any one
peacock, and in the sage of Crotona, had even- but a philologist. Some extracts of a longer and:
tually passed'into his own frame. Of his early more- satisfactory character are to be found in
history we know nothing, except, if we can trust Cicero, who gives us from the annals,-the dream.
the loose poetical testimony of Silius and Clau- of Ilia (18 lines); the conflicting auspices observed.
dian' that he served with credit as a soldier, and by Romulus and Remus (20 lines); and the speech
rose to the rank of a centurion. When M. Por- of Pyrrhus with regard to ransoming the prisoners
cius Cato, who had filled the office of quaestor (8 lines): besides these, a passage from the Anunder Scipio in the African war, was returning dromache (18 lines); a curious invective against
home, he found Ennius in Sardinia, became ac- itinerant fortune-tellers, probably from the Satires;
quainted with his high powers, and brought him and a few others of less importance. Aulus Gelin his train to Rome, our poet being at that time lius has saved eighteen consecutive verses, in
about the age of thirty-eight. But his military which the duties and bearing of a humble friend
ardour was not yet quenched; for twelve years towards his superior' are bodied forth in very spiafterwards he accompanied M. Fulvius Nobilior rited phraseology, forming a picture which it was
during the Aetolian campaign, and shared his believed that the poet intended for a portrait of
triumph. It is recorded that the victorious gene- himself, while Macrobius presents us with a battleral, at the instigation, probably of his literary piece (8 lines), where a tribune is described as galFi'iend, consecrated the spoils captured from the lantly resisting the attack of a crowd of foes.
VOL. II. C