Listed 33 sub titles with search on: Biographies for wider area of: "PUGLIA Region ITALY" .
TARANTO (Ancient city) PUGLIA
A Greek comic poet, son of a potter of
Tarentum, who lived about B.C. 300, and invented a style of composition of his
own, which was much diffused in Magna Graecia, and is said to have been imitated
even by the Romans. It was called the Hilarotragoedia (Hilarotragoidia) -- cheerful
tragedy. It was a travesty of tragic myths by the intermixture of comic scenes.
The scanty fragments of the thirty-eight plays of Rhinthon do not give us any
adequate idea of this kind of composition.
THOURII (Ancient city) PUGLIA
372 - 270
Alexis. One of the most prolific and important writers of
the Middle Attic Comedy, and uncle to Menander. He was born at Thurii, B.C. 392,
and is said to have lived to the age of one hundred and six years, and to have
died on the stage with the crown of victory on his head. Some two hundred and
forty-five plays are attributed to him, of which numerous extracts are still extant
and display both wit and elegance.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Nov 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Alexis. A comic poet, born at Thurii, in Magna Graecia (Suidas s. v. Al.), but
admitted subsequently to the privileges of an Athenian citizen, and enrolled in
the deme Oion, belonging to the tribe Leontis (Steph. Byz.). He was the uncle
and instructor of Menander (Suidas s. v. Alexis; Proleg. Aristoph.). When he was
born we are not expressly told, but he lived to the age of 106 (Plut. Defect.
Orac.), and was living at least as late as B. C. 288. Now the town of Thurii was
destroyed by the Lucanians about B. C. 390. It is therefore not at all unlikely
that the parents of Alexis, in order to escape from the threatened destruction
of their city, removed shortly before with their little son to Athens. Perhaps
therefore we may assign about B. C. 394 as the date of the birth of Alexis. He
had a son Stephanus, who also wrote comedies (Suidas l. c). He appears to have
been rather addicted to the pleasures of the table (Athen. viii.). According to
Plutarch (De Senis Administ. Reipubl.), he expired upon the stage while being
crowned as victor. By the old grammarians he is commonly called a writer of the
middle comedy, and fragments and the titles of many of his plays confirm this
statement. Still, for more than 30 years he was contemporary with Philippides,
Philemon, Menander, and Diphilus, and several fragments shew that he also wrote
pieces which would be classed with those of the new comedy.
He was a remarkably prolific writer. Suidas says he wrote 245 plays,
and the titles of 113 have come down to us. The Meropis, Ankulion, Olumpidoros,
and Paraditos, in which he ridiculed Plato, were probably exhibited as early as
the 104th Olympiad. The Agonis, in which he ridiculed Misgolas, was no doubt written
while he was alive, and Aeschines (c. Timarch.) in B. C. 345, speaks of him as
then living. The Adelphoi and Stoatiotes, in which he satirized Demosthenes, were
acted shortly after B. C. 343. The Hippos, in which he alluded to the decree of
Sophocles against the philosophers, in B. C. 316. The Puraunos in B. C. 312. The
Pharmakopole and Hupobolimaios in B. C. 306. As might have been expected in a
person who wrote so much, the same passage frequently occurred in several plays;
nor did he scruple sometimes to borrow from other poets, as, for example, from
Eubulus (Athen. i.). Carystius of Pergamus (ap. Athen. vi.) says he was the first
who invented the part of the parasite. This is not quite correct, as it had been
introduced before him by Epicharmus; but he appears to have been the first who
gave it the form in which it afterwards appeared upon the stage, and to have been
very happy in his exhibition of it. His wit and elegance are praised by Athenaeus
(ii.), whose testimony is confirmed by the extant fragments. A considerable list
of peculiar words and forms used by him is given by Meineke. His plays were frequently
translated by the Roman comic writers (Gell. ii. 23). The fragments we possess
of his plays have been preserved chiefly by Athenaeus and Stobaeus.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
TARANTO (Ancient city) PUGLIA
Aristonicus, of Tarentum, the author of a mythological work which is often referred
to (Phot. Cod. 190; Serv. ad Aen. iii. 335; Caes. Germ. in Arat. Phaen. 327; Hygin.
Poet. Astr. ii. 34). He is perhaps the same as the one mentioned by Athenaeus
(i), but nothing is known about him.
ARPINA (Ancient city) LAZIO
Fadius, the name of a family of the municipium of Arpinum. Some of the members of it settled
at Rome, while others remained in their native place. The Fadii appear in history
about the time of Cicero, but none of them rose to any higher office than the
tribuneship. The only cognomens that occur in the family, are Gallus and Rufus.
The following have no surnames:
1. C. or Q. Fadius, for in one of the two passages in which he is mentioned, he
is called Caius, and in the other Quintus. He was a libertinus, and seems to have
possessed considerable wealth, for his daughter, who was married to M. Antonius,
is called a rich woman (Cic. Philipp. ii. 2, ad Att. xvi. 11).
2. L. Fadius, was aedile in his native place of Arpinum, in B. C. 44 (Cic. ad
Att. xv. 15, 17, 20).
3. Sex. Fadius, a disciple of the physician Nicon, but otherwise unknown. (Cic.
ad Fam. vii. 20).
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Dec 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
SALAPIA (Ancient city) PUGLIA
Of Salapia. He and Blattius were the leading men at Salapia, and he favoured Hannibal,
while Blattius advocated the interests of Rome, at least as much as he could do
in secret. But as Blattius could effect nothing without Dasius, he at length endeavoured
to persuade him to espouse the part of the Romans. But Dasius, unwilling to support
his rival, informed Hannibal of the schemes of Blattius. Both were then summoned
by Hannibal. Blattius, when he appeared before the Carthaginian general, accused
Dasius of treachery; and Hannibal, who had not much confidence in either of them,
dismissed them both. However, Blattius carried out his design, and Salapia with
its Punic garrison was surrendered to the Romans. Dasius was killed in the massacre
which ensued. This happened in B. C. 210. (Liv. xxvi. 38; Appian, Annib. 45, &c.)
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
VRENDESION (Ancient city) PUGLIA
Of Brundusium, was commander of the garrison at Clastidium in B. C. 218, and being bribed by Hannibal, he surrendered the place to him, whereby the Carthaginians, who were encamped on the Trebia, obtained plentiful stores of provisions. (Liv. xxi. 48.)
ARPINA (Ancient city) LAZIO
Gratidius. M. Gratidius, proposed in B. C. 115 a lex tabellaria at Arpinum, which
was opposed by M. Tullius Cicero, the grandfather of the orator, who was married
to Gratidia, the sister of M. Gratidius. The question respecting the lex tabellaria
was referred to the consul of the year, M. Aemilius Scaurus, who seems to have
decided in favour of Cicero, for it is said that Scaurus praised his sentiments
and his courage. (Cic. de Leg. ii. 16.) According to Cicero (Brut. 45), Gratidius
was a clever accuser, well versed in Greek literature, and a person with great
natural talent as an orator; he was further a friend of the orator M. Antonius,
and accompanied him as his praefect to Cilicia, where he was killed. In the last-mentioned
passage Cicero adds, that Gratidius spoke against C. Fimbria, who had been accused
of extortion. (Val. Max. viii. 5.2.) This accusation seems to refer to the administration
of a province, which Fimbria undertook in B. C. 103 (for he was consul in B. C.
104), so that the accusation would belong to B. C. 102, and more particularly
to the beginning of that year, for in the course of it M. Antonius undertook the
command against the pirates, and M. Gratidius, who accompanied him, was killed.
(Comp. J. Obsequens, Prodig. 104; Drumann, Gesch. Roms, vol. i., who, however,
places the campaign of M. Antonius against the pirates one year too early.)
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Nov 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
SYVARIS (Ancient city) PUGLIA
Diocles. Of Sybaris, a Pythagorean philosopher (Iamb. Vit. Pyth. 36), who must be distinguished from another Pythagorean, Diodes of Phlius, who is mentioned by Iamblichus (Vit. Pythag. 35) as one of the most zealous followers of Pythagoras. The latter Diocles was still alive in the time of Aristoxenus (Diog. Laert. viii. 46), but further particulars are not known about him.
TARANTO (Ancient city) PUGLIA
Aristoxenus (Aristoxenos). A Greek philosopher and musician, a native of
Tarentum, and a pupil of Aristotle. He lived about B.C. 330, and was a prolific
writer on various subjects, but most particularly on music. In contrast with the
Pythagoreans, who referred everything to the relations of numbers, he regarded
music as founded on the difference of tones as perceived by the ear. Of his Harmonika
Stoicheia three books are preserved, but they are neither complete nor in their
original shape. Only a part of his Rhuthmika Stoicheia has survived.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
. . .The "harmonic" Aristoxenus Tarentum, a pupil of Aristotle, was held by the ancients to be the greatest authority on music; from his numerous works was drawn the greatest part of subsequent musical literature. Of other writers on music we may mention the well-known mathematician Euclid, and the great astronomer Claudius Ptolemaeus, who perfected musical acoustics.
This extract is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Archytas. A famous Tarentine astronomer and geometrician, the son of Hestiaeus. He was seven times elected governor of his native city. He is said to have been instrumental in rescuing Plato from the tyrant Dionysius. Many stories are told of his ingenuity. For him is claimed the invention of the screw, of the pulley, and of a wooden pigeon that could fly. He is also reported to have attempted to calculate the number of the grains of sand upon the sea-shore. Only a single fragment of his writings has come down to us in Porphyry. He perished in a shipwreck about B.C. 394.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Archytas (Archutas), a Greek of Tarentum, who was distinguished as a philosopher, mathematician. general. and statesman and was no less admired for his integrity and virtue, both in public and in private life. Little is known of his history, since the lives of him by Aristoxenus and Aristotle (Athen. xii.) are lost. A brief account of him is given by Diogenes Laertius (viii. 79-83). His father's name was Mnasarchus, Mnesagoras, or Histiaeus. The time when he lived is disputed, but it was probably about 400 B. C., and onwards, so that he was contemporary with Plato, whose life he is said to have saved by his influence with the tyrant Dionysius (Tzetzes, Chil. x. 359, xi. 362; Suidas, s. v. Archutas), and with whom he kept up a familiar intercourse (Cic. de Senect. 12). Two letters which are said to have passed between them are preserved by Diogenes. He was seven times the general of his city, though it was the custom for the office to be held for no more than a year, and he commanded in several campaigns, in all of which he was victorious. Civil affairs of the greatest consequence were entrusted to him by his fellow-citizens. After a life which secured to him a place among the very greatest men of antiquity, he was drowned while upon a voyage on the Adriatic (Hor. Carm. i. 28). He was greatly admired for his domestic virtues. He paid particular attention to the comfort and education of his slaves. The interest which he took in the education of children is proved by the mention of a child's rattle (platage) among his mechanical inventions (Aelian, V. H. xiv. 19; Aristot. Pol. viii. 6.1). As a philosopher, he belonged to the Pythagorean school, and he appears to have been himself the founder of a new sect. Like the Pythagoreans in general, he paid much attention to mathematics. Horace calls him "maris et terrae numeroque carentis arenae Mensorem". He solved the problem of the doubling of the cube, (Vitruv. ix. praef.) and invented the method of analytical geometry. He was the first who applied the principles of mathematics to mechanics. To his theoretical science he added the skill of a practical mechanician, and constructed various machines and automatons, among which his wooden flying dove in particular was the wonder of antiquity (Gell. x. 12). He also applied mathematics with success to musical science, and even to metaphysical philosophy. His influence as a philosopher was so great, that Plato was undoubtedly indebted to him for some of his views; and Aristotle is thought by some writers to have borrowed the idea of his categories, as well as some of his ethical principles, from Archytas. The fragments and titles of works ascribed to Archytas are very numerous, but the genuineness of many of them is greatly doubted. lost of them are found in Stobaeus. They relate to physics, metaphysics, logic, and ethics. A catalogue of them is given by Fabricius (Bib. Graec. i.). Several of the fragments of Archytas are published in Gale, Opusc. Mythol. Cantab. 1671, Amst. 1688. A work ascribed to him "on the 10 Categories", was published by Camerarius, in Greek, under the title Archutou pheromenoi deka logoi katholikoi, Lips. 1564; and in Greek and Latin, Ven. 1571. From the statement of Iamblichus (Vit. Pyth. 23), that Archytas was a hearer of Pythagoras, some writers have thought that there were two Pythagorean philosophers of this name. But Iamblichus was undoubtedly mistaken. The writers of this name on agriculture (Diog Laert. l. c.; Varro, R. R. i. 1; Columella, R. R. i. 1), on cookery (opsartutika, Iamblich, Vit. Pyth. 29, 34; Athen. xii.), and on architecture , are most probably identical with the philosopher, to whom the most various attainments are ascribed. Busts of Archytas are engraved in Gronovius' Thesaur. Antiq. Graec. ii. tab. 49, and in the Andichita d'Ercolano, v. tab. 29, 30.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Cleinias (Kleinias), a Pythagorean philosopher, of Tarentum, was a contemporary and friend
of Plato's, as appears from the story (perhaps otherwise worthless) which Diogenes
Laertius (ix. 40) gives on the authority of Aristoxenus, to the effect that Plato
wished to burn all the writings of Democritus which he could collect, but was
prevented by Amyclas and Cleinias. In his practice, Cleinias was a true Pythagorean.
Thus we hear that he used to assuage his anger by playing on his harp; and, when
Prorus of Cyrene had lost all his fortune through a political revolution, Cleinias,
who knew nothing of him except that he was a Pythagorean, took on himself the
risk of a voyage to Cyrene, and supplied him with money to the full extent of
his loss.
Dicaearchus. Of Tarentum, is mentioned by Iamblichus (de Vit. Pythag. 36) among the celebrated Pythagorean philosophers. Some writers have been inclined to attribute to him the Bioi which are mentioned among the works of the Peripatetic Dicaearchus.
Eurymedon. Of Tarentum, a Pythagorean philosopher mentioned by Iamblichus. (Vit. Pyth. 36.)
Histiaeus. According to Aristoxenus (in Diog. Laert. viii. 79), the father of Archytas of Tarentum was named Hestiaeus. And the name occurs in the list of Pythagoreans in Iamblichus (Vit. Pythay. c. 36.267).
THOURII (Ancient city) PUGLIA
Cleinomachus (Kleinomachos), a Megaric philosopher of Thurium, is said by Diogenes Laertius (ii. 112) to have been the first who composed treatises on the fundamental principles of dialectics (peri axiomaton kai kategorematon). We learn from Suidas (s. v. Purron), that Pyrrhon, who flourished about 330 B. C., attended the instructions of Bryso, and that the latter was a disciple of Cleinomachus. We may therefore set the date of Cleinomachus towards the commencement of the same century.
ROUDIAI (Ancient city) PUGLIA
Ennius Quintus, the "father of Roman poetry", was born at Rudiae in
Calabria, B.C. 239. He served in the Second Punic War and held the post of centurion
in Sardinia, whence he was brought to Rome by Cato , B.C. 204. We have no ground
for attributing to Cato any appreciation of Ennius's poetical gifts; he was no
doubt attracted by his vigour and practical capacity. Established at Rome, Ennius
gained a livelihood by giving instruction in the Greek language and by translating
Greek plays for the Roman stage. His talents soon brought him recognition. Among
those who honoured him with their friendship was the great Africanus, beside whose
tomb the poet's bust is said to have been placed. In B.C. 189, he accompanied
the consul M. Fulvius Nobilior into his province of Aetolia, expressly to record
his exploits. In grateful recollection of this service the son of Fulvius in B.C.
184, with the approval of the people, assigned him a lot among the triumviri coloniae
deducendae, thus constituting him a Roman citizen. To this he alludes in the last
book of his Annales with justifiable pride, Nos sumu' Romani, qui fuimus ante
Rudini. His honours did not, however, bring him wealth. Cicero relates that his
old age was passed in poverty, but he did not allow this to cloud his genial temper.
He is said to have keenly enjoyed the pleasures of convivial intercourse, and
died of an attack of the gout at the age of seventy (B.C. 169).
Ennius was a remarkably prolific writer, and left untouched few departments
of poetical composition. He probably did not commence his literary career till
middle life, and he certainly continued it till the time of his death ( Cic. Brut.78).
In the absence of certain data for determining the chronological order of his
writings, it will be best to enumerate them in the order of their importance.
His chief work was the Annales, an epic chronicle of Roman history and legend
from the time of Aeneas to his own day, in eighteen books, written in hexameter
verse. The first twelve books formed a connected poem, and may have been published
together B.C. 172 (cf. Aul. Gell. xvii.21.43), though Teuffel thinks the whole
work was issued in successive parts of three books each. Of this renowned work,
so justly celebrated in antiquity, which gained for its author the title of "the
Roman Homer", sufficient fragments still remain to enable us to appreciate
the qualities of his genius, and to deplore the loss of historical and literary
material which it contained. The first book seems to have been the most poetical,
and is naturally the most often quoted. The longest passages we possess are the
Dream of Hia and the Auspices of Romulus and Remus, about ten lines each. The
second and third books continued the regal period to its close, but are almost
entirely lost to us. In all these the poet made a free use of supernatural machinery.
The fourth, fifth, and sixth books began the Annales proper and carried the history
of the Republic down to the conquest of Italy and the war with Pyrrhus; of these
we possess a few short but striking fragments. In the third triad the Punic Wars
were described -the first briefly, as having been already treated by Naevius (for
whose rude Saturnian verse Ennius shows much contempt); the second, in which he
himself had been an actor, at greater length and not without mythological embellishment.
The thirteenth book began with a fresh exordium, as also did the sixteenth, which
headed the closing series and brought the history down to B.C. 181 at least, if
not somewhat later. The poem gained immediate popularity. It is recorded that
large crowds attended its public recitation, and Vergil is said to have "introduced
many lines into the Aeneid with the view of pleasing a people devoted to Ennius"
(populus Ennianus). Its high estimation continued far into the times of the Empire,
as we know from abundant evidence. It is not until Macrobius that we find it falling
into neglect.
Next in importance to the Annales come the tragedies. These were free
imitations of Greek dramas, generally those of Euripides, though a few recall
by their titles the works of Aeschylus and Sophocles. The list is thus given by
Ribbeck: Achilles, Achilles (from Aristarchus), Aiax, Alcumena, Alexander, Andromache
Aechmalotis, Andromeda, Athamas, Cresphontes, Erechtheus, Eumenides, Hectoris
Lutra (or Lustra), Hecuba, Iphigenia, Medea Atheniensis, Medea Exul, Menalippa,
Nemea, Phoenix, Telamo, Telephus, Thyestes. Their composition extended over the
whole period of his literary life, B.C. 204-169, in which latter year the Thyestes
was written. It has been doubted whether Ennius used the chorus. If not, such
a play as the Eumenides, where the chorus is the chief character, would have had
to be entirely recast; and, besides, the criticisms of the Ars Poetica presuppose
a Roman tragic chorus. The reservation of the orchestra for the senators' seats
would, of course, make choral evolutions impossible; but with this exception the
plays of Ennius were closely modelled on their Greek originals. The magniloquence
of their style and their moral grandeur made them special favourites with the
public. Cicero gives them high praise, and it is to him that we are indebted for
the greater part of the scanty fragments that remain. A praetexta, entitled Sabinae
(Rape of the Sabine Women), has been attributed to Ennius by Vahlen from a passage
of Iulius Victor, and there is some ground for conjecturing that the Ambracia
was a drama of the same class, celebrating the deeds of Fulvius.
There also remain, besides the titles, some insignificant traces of
two comedies by him -Cupuncula and Pancratiastes. But his bent of mind was unsuited
for comedy, and he is mentioned by Volcacius Sedigitus only antiquitatis causa!
Ennius was addicted to philosophical speculations. His convictions
oscillated between the mystic doctrines of Pythagoras and the scepticism of Euhemerus.
Both found expression in his works. In the Annales he mentioned that the soul
of Homer migrated into his own. In the Epicharmus, a distant precursor of the
De Rerum Natura, written in trochaic tetrameters, he explained the tenets of Pythagoreanism.
In the Euhemerus (erroneously supposed by some to have been a prose work) he adopted
the mythologic theory of that superficial writer. It is probable that both these
works formed part of the four (or six) books of Saturae -i. e. miscellaneous poems
in various metres. To these, also, belonged the Sota, mentioned by Varro; the
Protrepticus, or "Art of Life"; the Hedyphagetica, a treatise on gastronomics,
based on that of Archestratus of Gela; and a few epigrams, the most celebrated
of which were the epitaphs on Africanus and on himself.
Ennius was filled with a proud and noble self-consciousness. He entered Rome:
1. as a missionary of culture and free-thought; and
2. as a consecrator of ancient tradition.
He gave to Latin literature an impulse it never quite lost. In nearly every field
he led the van. To him, more than to any one, it owes its predominant tone of
sober directness and moral strength. In him Greek culture, grafted on an Oscan
or Messapian stock, combined with Roman patriotism to form for the first time
that special intellectual type, enthusiastic but disciplined, imitative yet independent,
Hellenic in source but in development intensely national, which we can trace all
through the subsequent course of Roman letters, and most conspicuously in their
best and most illustrious representatives. In formal polish he was no doubt deficient;
yet he is often imitated by later writers, and by none with happier effect than
Vergil.
Bibliography
The earliest edition of his fragments was in the Fragm. Poet. Vet. Lat. a Rob.
Stephano Congesta, etc. (Henr. Stephanus, Paris, 1564). Far more complete was
the edition of Hieronymus Columna (Naples, 1590), reprinted with the emendations
and commentaries of M. A. Debrius and G. I. Voss by F. Hesselius of Rotterdam
(Amsterdam, 1707).
The best modern edition of the whole of Ennius is that of Vahlen (Leipzig,
1854). He is also included in Wordsworth's Fragments and Specimens of Early Latin
(Oxford, 1874), and in L. Muller's Enn. Carm. Reliquiae, accedunt Cn. Naevi Belli
Poenici quae supersunt (St. Petersburg, 1885).
In the year 1595, Paulus Merula published at Leyden an edition of
the Annales, which, among other alterations, included additional fragments said
to come from a MS. treatise De Continentia Vett. Poetarum ad Traianum Principem,
by L. Calpurnius Piso. This MS. has never appeared, and its very existence is
suspected. Merula's edition was reprinted with revisions by E. Spangenberg (Leipzig,
1825). Cf. Hoch, De Enn. Ann. Fr. a Paulo Merula Auctis (Bonn, 1839), and J. Lawicki,
De Fraude P. Merulae (Bonn, 1852). Books VII.-IX. (Punic Wars) have been treated
by T. Hug, Dissertatio Inaug. (Bonn, 1852); Book I. by H. Ilberg (Bonn, 1852).
The tragic fragments by M. A. Debrius, in his Syntagma Tragoediae
Latinae I. (Antwerp, 1593), reprinted at Paris in 1607 and 1619; also in the Collectanea
Vett. Tragg. of P. Scriverius (Leyden, 1620). The fragment of the Medea, including
additions to those given by Hessel and Merula, with a dissertation on Roman tragedy,
by H. Planck (Gottingen, 1807). Also in Analecta Crit. Poesis Rom. Sen. Relig.
Illustrantia, by F. Osann (Berlin, 1816). A critical edition of his dramatic fragments,
published by F. H. Bothe, in Poet. Scen. Lat. (Halberstadt, 1821- 1823; Leipzig,
1840). Also in Ribbeck's Scaenicae Rom. Poesis Fragmenta, 2 vols. (Leipzig, 1852-55).
Other Ennian fragments are given in Enn. Carm. ed. P. Burmann; in
the Anthol. Vett. Lat. Epigr. et Poem. (Amsterdam, 1759). Of this an enlarged
edition was published by H. Meyer (Leipzig, 1835). The Hedyphagetica fragments
were collected by C. Wernsdorf in the Poetae Lat. Minores, vols. i.-v. part i.
(Altenburg, 1780-88); vol. v. 2, 3-5 (Helmstadt, 1791-99). The ancient authorities
for the poet's life and writings are given by Hessel, Spangenberg, and Teuffel
(Rom. Lit. vol. i.; Eng. edit. London, 1891). Special discussions in Vahlen, Die
Annalen des Ennius (Berlin, 1886); H. Jordan, Quaest. Enn. (Konigsberg, 1885).
For general criticisms of his style and genius, see Patin, Etudes sur la Poesie
Latine, vol. ii. (Paris, 1869); Sellar, R. Poets of Republic, vol. i. (Oxford,
1881).
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Dec 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Ennius, whom the Romans ever regarded with a sort of filial reverence as the parent
of their literature -noster Ennius, our own Ennius, as he is styled with fond
familiarity- was born in the consulship of C. Mamilius Turrinus and C. Valerius
Falto, B. C. 239, the year immediately following that in which the first regular
drama had been exhibited on the Roman stage by Livius Andronicus. The place of
his nativity was Rudiae, a Calabrian village among the hills near Brundusium.
He claimed descent from the ancient lords of Messapia; and after he had become
a convert to the Pythagorean doctrines, was wont to boast that the spirit which
had once animated the body of the immortal Homer, after passing through many tenements,
after residing among others in a peacock, and in the sage of Crotona, had eventually
passed into his own frame. Of his early history we know nothing, except, if we
can trust the loose poetical testimony of Silius and Claudian, that he served
with credit as a soldier, and rose to the rank of a centurion. When M. Porcius
Cato, who had filled the office of quaestor under Scipio in the African war, was
returning home, he found Ennius in Sardinia, became acquainted with his high powers,
and brought him in his train to Rome, our poet being at that time about the age
of thirty-eight. But his military ardour was not yet quenched; for twelve years
afterwards he accompanied M. Fulvius Nobilior during the Aetolian campaign, and
shared his triumph. It is recorded that the victorious general, at the instigation
probably of his literary friend, consecrated the spoils captured from the enemy
to the Muses, and subsequently, when Censor, dedicated a joint temple to Hercules
and the Nine. Through the son of Nobilior, Ennius, when fir advanced in life,
obtained the rights of a citizen, a privilege which at that epoch was guarded
with watchful jealousy, and very rarely granted to an alien. From the period,
however, when lie quitted Sardinia, he seems to have made Rome his chief abode;
for there his great poetical talents, and an amount of learning which must have
been considered marvellous in those days, since he was master of three languages
-Oscan, Latin, and Greek- gained for him the respect and favour of all who valued
such attainments; and, in particular, he lived upon terms of the closest intimacy
with the conqueror of Hannibal and other members of that distinguished family.
Dwelling in a humble mansion on the Aventine, attended by a single female slave,
he maintained himself in honourable poverty by acting as a preceptor to patrician
youths; and having lived on happily to a good age, was carried off by a disease
of the joints, probably gout, when seventy years old, soon after the completion
of his great undertaking, which he closes by comparing himself to a race-horse,
in these prophetic lines:
Like some brave steed, who in his latest race
Hath won the Olympic wreath; the contest o'er,
Sinks to repose, worn out by age and toil.
At the desire of Africanus, his remains were deposited in the sepulchre of the
Scipios, and his bust allowed a place among the effigies of that noble house.
His epitaph, penned by himself in the undoubting anticipation of immortal fame,
has been preserved, and may be literally rendered thus:
Romans, behold old Ennius! whose lays
Built up on high your mighty fathers' praise!
Pour not the wail of mourning o'er my bier,
Nor pay to me the tribute of a tear:
Still, still I live ! from mouth to mouth I fly
!
Never forgotten never shall I die !
The works of Ennius are believed to have existed entire so late as the thirteenth
century, but they have long since disappeared as an independent whole, and nothing
now remains but fragments collected from other ancient writers. These amount in
all to many hundred lines; but a large proportion being quotations cited by grammarians
for the purpose of illustrating some rare form, or determining the signification
of sonic obsolete word, are mere scraps, possessing little interest for any one
but a philologist. Some extracts of a longer and more satisfactory character are
to be found in Cicero, who gives us from the annals -the dream of Hia (18 lines);
the conflicting auspices observed by Romulus and Remus (20 lines); and the speech
of Pyrrhus with regard to ransoming the prisoners (8 lines): besides these, a
passage from the Andromache (18 lines); a curious invective against itinerant
fortune-tellers, probably from the Satires ; and a few others of less importance.
Aulus Gellius has saved eighteen consecutive verses, in which the duties and bearing
of a humble friend towards his superior are bodied forth in very spirited phraseology,
forming a picture which it was believed that the poet intended for a portrait
of hiself, while Macrobius presents us with a battlepiece (8 lines), where a tribune
is described as gallantly resisting the attack of a crowd of foes.
Although under these circumstances it is extremely difficult to form
any accurate judgment with regard to his absolute merits as a poet, we are at
least certain that his success was triumphant. For a long series of years his
strains were read aloud to applauding multitudes, both in the metropolis and in
the provinces; and a class of men arose who, in imitation of the Homeristae, devoted
themselves exclusively to the study and recitation of his works, receiving the
appellation of Ennianistae. In the time of Cicero he was still considered the
prince of Roman song (Ennium summum Epicum poetam -de Opt. G. O. 1. Summus poeta
noster- pro Balb. 22); Virgil was not ashamed to borrow many of his thoughts,
and not a few of his expressions; and even the splendour of the Augustan age failed
to throw him into the shade. And well did he merit the gratitude of his adopted
countrymen; for not only did he lay the basis of their literature, but actually
constructed their language. He found the Latin tongue a rough, meagre, uncultivated
dialect, made up of ill-cemented fragments, gathered at random from a number of
different sources, subject to no rules which might secure its stability, and destitute
of any regular system of verification. He softened its asperities, he enlarged
its vocabulary, he regulated its grammatical combinations, he amalgamated into
one harmonious whole its various conflicting elements, and he introduced the heroic
hexameter, and various other metres, long carefully elaborated by Grecian skill.
Even in the disjointed and mutilated remains which have been transmitted to us,
we observe a vigour of imagination, a national boldness of tone, and an energy
of expression which amply justify the praises so liberally launched on his genius
by the ancients; and although we are perhaps at first repelled by the coarseness,
clumsiness, and antique fashion of the garb in which his high thoughts are invested,
we cannot but feel that what was afterwards gained in smoothness and refinement
is a poor compensation for the loss of that freshness and strength which breathe
the hearty spirit of the brave old days of Roman simplicity and freedom. The criticism
of Ovid,"Ennius ingenio maximus arte rudis", is fair, and happily worded; but
the fine simile of Quintilian, "Ennium sicut sacros vetustate lucos adoremus,
in quibus grandia et antiqua robora, jam non tantam habent speciem, quantam religionem",
more fully embodies our sentiments.
We subjoin a catalogue of the works of Ennius, in so far as their titles can be
ascertained:
I. Annalium Libri XVIII. The most important of all his productions was a history
of Rome in dactylic hexameters, commeneing with the loves of Mars and Rhea, and
reaching down to his own times. The subject was selected with great judgment.
The picturesque fables, romantic legends, and chivalrous exploits with which it
abounded, afforded full scope for the exercises of his poetical powers; he was
enabled to testify gratitude towards his personal friends, and to propitiate the
nobles as a body, by extolling their own lofty deeds and the glories of their
sires; and perhaps no theme could have been chosen so well calculated to awaken
the enthusiasm of all ranks among a proud, warlike, and as yet unlettered people.
His faney was cramped by none of those fetters imposed by a series of well ascertained
facts; he was left to work his will upon the rude ballads of the vulgar, the wild
traditions of the old patrician clans, and the meagre chronicles of the priests.
Niebuhr conjectures that the beautiful history of the kings in Livy may have been
taken from Ennius. No great space, however, was allotted to the earlier records,
for the contest with Hannibal, which was evidently described with great minuteness,
commenced with the seventh book, the first Punic war being passed over altogether,
as we are told by Cicero (Brut. 19).
II. Fabulae. The fame of Ennius as a dramatist, was little inferior to his reputation
as an epic bard. His pieces, which were very numerous, appear to have been all
translations or adaptations from the Greek, the metres of the originals being
in most cases closely imitated. Fragments have been preserved of the following
tragedies: Achilles, Achilles (Aristarchi), Ajax, Alcmaeon, Alexander, Andromacha,
Andromeda, Antiope, Athamas, Cresphontes, Dulorestes, Erectheus, Eumenides, Hectoris
Lytra, Heuba, Hiona (doubtful), Iphigenia, Medea, Medus, Melanippa or Melanippus
Nemea, Neoptolemus, Phoenix, Telamon, Telephus, Thyestes; and of the following
comedies, belonging to the class of palliatae: Ambracia, Cupiuncula (perhaps Caprunculus),
Celestis (name very doubtful), Paneratiasles, s. Pancratiastae.
For full information as to the sources from whence these were derived,
consult the editions of Hesselius and Bothe, together with the dissertations of
Osann referred to at the end of this article.
III. Satirae. In four (Porphyr. ad Hor. Sal. i. 10), or according to others (Donat. ad Terent. Phorm. ii. 2. 25) in six books, of which less tham twenty-five scattered lines are extant, but from these it is evident that the Satirae were composed in a great variety of metres, and from this circumstance, in all probability, received their appellation.
IV. Scipio. A panegyric upon the public career of his friend and patron, Africanus.
The measure adopted seems to have been the trochaic tetrameter catalectic, although
a line quoted, possibly by mistake, in Macrobius (Sat. vi. 4) is a dactylic hexameter.
The five verses and a half which we possess of this piece do not enable us to
decide whether Valerius Maximus was entitled to term it (viii. 14) rude et impolitum
praceouium (Suidas, s. v. Ennios; Schol. vet. ad Hor. Sat. ii. 1. 16). Some scholars
have supposed that the Scipio was in reality a drama belonging to the class of
the praeteatatae.
V. Asotus. Varro and Festus when examining into the meaning of certain uncommon
words, quote from "Ennius in Asoto", or as Scaliger, very erroneously, insists
"in Sotadico". The subject and nature of this piece are totally unknown. Many
believe it to have been a comedy.
VI. Epicharmus. From a few remnants, amounting altogether to little more tall
twenty lines, we gather that this must have been a philosophieal didactic poem
in which the nature of the gods, the human mind and its phaenomena, the physical
structure of the universe and various kindred topics, were discussed. From the
title we conclude, that it was translated or imitated from Epicharmus the comic
poet, who was a disciple of Pythagoras and is known to have written De Rerum Nalura.
VII. Phagetica, Phagesia, Hedyphagetica. These and many other titles have been
assigned to a work upon edible fishes, which Ennius may perhaps have translated
from Archestratus. Eleven lines in dactylic hexameters have been preserved by
Apuleius exhibiting a mere catalogue of names and localities.
VIII. Epigrammata. Under this head we have two short epitaphs upon Scipio Africanus, and one upon Ennius himself, the whole in elegiac verse, extending collectively to ten lines.
IX. Protreptica. The title seems to indicate that this was a collection of precepts exhorting the reader to the practice of virtue. We cannot, however, tell much about it nor even discover whether it was written in prose or verse, since one word only is known to us, namely pannibus quoted by Charisius.
X. Praecepta. Very probably the same with the preceding. From the remains of three lines in Priscian we conclude that it was composed in iambic trimeters.
XI. Sabinae. Angelo Mai in a note on Cic. De Rep. ii. 8, gives a few words in
prose from "Ennius in Sabinis" without informing us where he found them. Columna
has pointed out that in Macrobius, Sat. vi. 5, we ought to read "Ennius in libro
Satirarum quarto" instead of Sabinarum as it stands in the received text.
XII. Euhemerus, a translation into Latin prose of the hiera anagraphe of Euhemerus.
Several short extracts are contained in Lactantius, and a single word in the De
Re Rustic of Varro.
Censorinus (c. 19) tells us, that according to Ennius the year consisted
of 366 days, and hence it has been conjectured that he was the author of some
astronomical treatise. But an expression of this sort may have been dropped incidentally,
and is not sufficient to justify such a supposition without further evidence.
The first general collection of the fragments of Ennius is that contained in the
"Fragmenta veterum Poetarum Latinorum" by Robert and Henry Stephens, Paris, 1564.
It is exceedingly imperfect and does not include any portion of the Euhemerus,
which being in prose was excluded from the plan.
Much more complete and accurate are "Q. Ennii poetae vetustissimi,
quae supersunt, fragmenta", collected, arranged, and expounded, by Hieronymus
Columna, Neapol. 1590, reprinted with considerable additions, comprising the commentaries
of Delrio and G. J. Voss, by Hesselius, professor of history and eloquence at
Rotterdam, Amstel. 1707. This must be considered as the best edition of the collected
fragments which has yet appeared.
Five years after Columna's edition a new edition of the Annales was
published at Leyden 1595, by Paullus Merula, a Dutch lawyer, who professed not
only to have greatly purified the text, and to have introduced many important
corrections in the arrangement and distribution of the different portions, but
to have made considerable additions to the relics previously discovered. The new
verses were gathered chiefly from a work by L. Calpurnius Piso, a contemporary
of the younger Pliny, bearing the title De Continentia Veterum Poetarum ad Trajanum
Principem, a MS. of which Merula tells us that he examined hastily in the library
of St. Victor at Paris, accompanying this statement with an inexplicable and most
suspicious remark, that he was afraid the volume would be stolen. It is certain
that this codex, if it ever existed, has long since disappeared, and the lines
in question are regarded with well-merited suspicion.
The Annales from the text of Merula were reprinted, but not very accurately,
with some trifling additions, and with the fragments of the Punic war of Naevius,
byErnst Spangenberg, Lips. 1825.
The fragments of the tragedies were carefully collected and examined
by M. A. Delrio in his Syntagma Tragoediae Latinae,Antv. 1593; reprinted at Paris
in 1607 and 1619: they will be found also in the Collectanea veterum Tragicorum
of Scriverius, to which are appended the emendations and notes of G. J. Vossius,
Lug. Bat., 1620. The fragments of both the tragedies and comedies are contained
in Bothe, Poetarum Lutii scenicorum fragmenta, Hlalberst. 1823. The fragments
of the Medea, with a dissertation on the origin and nature of Roman tragedy, were
published by H. Planck, Gotting. 1806, and the fragments of the Medea and of the
Hecuba, compared with the plays of Euripides bearing the same names, are contained
in the Analecta Critica Poesis Romanorum scenicae reliquias illustrantia of Osann,
Berolin.1816.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Dec 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Ennius, a native of Rudiae in Calabria, was serving as a centurion with the army in Sardinia, when Cato arrived there as quaestor. Ennius followed Cato to Rome; acquired the Roman citizenship in 184 B.C.; and made his permanent abode on the Aventine. Here we have to do with his work only so far as it concerned Tragedy. Although his Annals and his Satires were more characteristic products of his genius, he was also the most popular tragic dramatist who had yet appeared; and it was due to him, in the first instance, that Roman Tragedy acquired the popularity which [p. 866] it retained down to the days of Cicero. About twenty-five of his tragedies are known by their titles. Two of these were praetextatae,--one of which, called Sabinae, dealt with the intervention of the Sabine women in the war between Romulus and Tatius; while another, the Ambracia, turned on the capture of the town of Ambracia in the Aetolian war. The other pieces were on Greek subjects,--about one half of them being connected with the Trojan war. His Medea was translated from the play of Euripides, and the opening lines, which are extant, indicate that the version was a tolerably close one. They have a certain rugged majesty which agrees with Horace's description of the style used by Ennius in Tragedy,--In scaenam missos magno cum pondere versus.
This extract is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
SYVARIS (Ancient city) PUGLIA
Hemitheon, a Sybarite of the vilest character, and the author of an obscene work.
He is mentioned by Lucian (Adv. Indoctums, c. 23, and, according to the conjecture
of Solanus, Pseudolog. c. 3). It is thought that he is the writer referred to
in a passage of Ovid (Trist. ii. 417), and, if the common reading of the passage
is correct, he appears to have flourished not long before that poet. But Heinsius
(ad loc.) conjectures that for "nuper" we should read " turpem,"
in which case, the age of Hemitheon remains undetermined. If it is to him that
Ovid refers, it may be gathered that his work was a poem, entitled Sybaritis.
(Politian, Miscellanea, c. 15; Fabric. Bibl. Gr. vol. viii.)
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Nov 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
TARANTO (Ancient city) PUGLIA
Andronicus, Livius. The earliest Roman poet, as far as poetical literature is concerned; for whatever popular poetry there may have existed at Rome, its poetical literature begins with this writer (Quintil. x. 2.7). He was a Greek and probably a native of Tarentum, and was made prisoner by the Romans during their wars in southern Italy. He then became the slave of M. Livius Salinator, perhaps the same who was consul in B. C. 219, and again in B. C. 207. Andronicus instructed the children of his master, but was after-wards restored to freedom, and received from his patron the Roman name Livius (Hieron. in Euseb. Chron. ad Ol. 148.) During his stay at Rome, Andronicus made himself a perfect master of the Latin language, and appears to have exerted himself chiefly in creating a taste for regular dramatic representations. His first drama was acted in B. C. 240, in the consulship of C. Claudius and M. Tuditanus (Cic. Brut.. 18, comp. Tusc. Quaest. i. 1, de Senect. 14; Liv. vii. 2; Gellius, xvii. 21); but whether it was a tragedy or a comedy is uncertain. That he wrote comedies as well as tragedies, is attested beyond all doubt (Diomedes, iii.; Flavius Vopisc. Numerian, 13; the author of the work de Comoed. et Trag.). The number of his dramas was considerable, and we still possess the titles and fragments of at least fourteen. The subjects of them were all Greek, and they were little more than translations or imitations of Greek dramas. Andronicus is said to have died in B. C. 221, and cannot have lived beyond B. C. 214. As to the poetical merit of these compositions we are unable to form an accurate idea, since the extant fragments are few and short. The language in them appears yet in a rude and undeveloped form, but it has nevertheless a solid basis for further development. Cicero (Brut. 18) says, that in his time they were no longer worth reading, and that the 600 mules in the Clytemnestra and the 3000 craters in the Equus Trojanus could not afford any pleasure upon the stage (ad Famil. vii. 1). In the time of Horace, the poems of Andronicus were read and explained in schools; and Horace, although not an admirer of early Roman poetry, says, that he should not like to see the works of Andronicus destroyed (Horat. Epist. ii. 1. 69).
Besides his dramas, Livius Andronicus wrote:
1. A Latin Odyssey in the Saturnian verse (Cic. Brut. 18), but it is uncertain whether the poem was an imitation or a mere translation of the Homeric poem.
2. Hymns (Liv. xxvii. 37; Fest. s.v. Sribas), of which no fragments are extant. The statement of some writers, that he wrote versified Annals, is founded upon a confusion of Livius Andronicus and Ennius.
The fragments of Livius Andronicus are contained in the collections of the fragments of the Roman dramatists mentioned under ACCIUS. The fragments of the Odyssea Latina are collected in H. Duntzer et L. Lersch, de Versu quem vocant Saturnino; all the fragments are contained in Duntzer's Livii Andronici Fragmenta collecta et illustrata, &c. Berlin, 1835.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
The first half of the 3rd century B.C. was the period at which the influence of Greek literature began to be directly felt by the Romans. Tarentum was the greatest of the Greek colonies in Southern Italy. After the fall of Tarentum in 272 B.C., the intercourse between Romans and Greeks became more familiar. In the First Punic War (263-241 B.C.) Sicily was the principal battle-ground; and in Sicily the Romans had ample facilities for improving their acquaintance with the Greek language. They had also frequent opportunities of witnessing Greek plays. Just after the close of the war the first attempt at a Latin reproduction of Greek tragedy was made by Livius Andronicus (240 B.C.). He was a Greek, probably of Tarentum, and had received his freedom from his master, M. Livius Salinator, whose sons he had educated. He then settled at Rome, and devoted the rest of his life to literary work. It may be conjectured that most of his plays were translated from the Greek. All of them, so far as we know, were on Greek subjects. Among the titles are Aegisthus, Ecus Trojanus, Ajax, Tereus, Hermione. His Latin style appears to have been harsh and crude. Livianae fabulae non satis dignae quae iterum legantur is Cicero's concise verdict (Brutus, 18, 71).
This extract is from: A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890) (eds. William Smith, LLD, William Wayte, G. E. Marindin). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Eugenes, the author of an epigram, in the Greek Anthology, upon the statue of Anacreon intoxicated. (Brunck, Anal. vol. ii.; Jacobs, Anth. Graec. vol. iii.; Paus. i. 93.1). The epigram seems to be an imitation of one by Leonidas Tarentinus on the same subject.
VRENDESION (Ancient city) PUGLIA
M. Pacuvius, a nephew of Ennius by the mother's side, was a native of Brundusium. He is thus the third instance (Livius and Ennius being the two others) in which early Roman drama is associated with South Italian birth. Pacuvius was born about 219 B.C., and lived to the age of ninety. Of his tragedies, one, called Paulus, was a praetextata; twelve more are known to have been on Greek subjects; and among these one of the most celebrated, the Antiope, was a translation from Euripides. Some remarkable fragments of his Chryses--a tragedy concerned, like his Dulorestes, with the wanderings of Orestes in search of Pylades--disclose the growth of a Roman interest in physical philosophy, and also in ethical questions. About 400 lines of Pacuvius are extant, but many of these are merely single verses, preserved by grammarians as examples of strange words or usages. Much as Pacuvius was admired on other grounds, his Latinity was not accounted pure by Cicero, who couples him with the comic poet Caecilius in the censure, male locutos esse (Brutus, 74, 258). Pacuvius was prone to coin new forms of words (such as temeritudo, concorditas), and carried the invention of compound adjectives to an extent which sometimes became ludicrous,--as in Nerei repandirostrum incurvicervicum pecus.
This extract is from: A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890) (eds. William Smith, LLD, William Wayte, G. E. Marindin). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
CANNAE (Ancient city) PUGLIA
Gisco, an officer in the service of Hannibal, of whom a story is told by Plutarch (Fab. Max. 15), that having accompanied his general to reconnoitre the enemy's army just before the battle of Cannae, Gisco expressed his astonishment at their numbers. To which Hannibal replied: "There is one thing yet more astonishing-that in all that number of men there is not one named Gisco".
Hasdrubal, an officer of high rank in the army of Hannibal. He is first mentioned as being entrusted by that general with the care of transporting his army over the Po (Polyb. iii. 66); and we afterwards find him employed in preparing the arrangements for the well-known stratagem by which Hannibal eluded the vigilance of Fabius, and effected his escape from Campania through the passes of the Apennines. (Id. iii. 93; Liv. xxii. 16.) He at this time held the chief direction of all military works (ho epi leitourlion tetalmenos); but there is little doubt that it is the same person whom we afterwards find in command of Hannibal's camp at Geronium on the occasion of his action with Minucius (Polyb. iii. 102), and who also commanded the left wing of the Carthaginian army at the battle of Cannae (B. C. 216). On that memorable day, Hasdrubal rendered the most important services. The Spanish and Gaulish horse under his command, after an obstinate combat, obtained the victory over the Roman cavalry to which they were opposed, cut to pieces the greater part of them, and dispersed the rest. As soon as he saw his victory in this quarter complete, Hasdrubal hastened to recal his troops from the pursuit, and led them to the suppoit of the Numidian cavalry of the right wing, against whom the Roman allies had hitherto maintained their ground, but took to flight on perceiving the approach of Hasdrubal. He thereupon left it to the Numidians to pursue the enemy, and, bringing up his cavalry to the centre of the field, by a well-timed charge upon the rear of the Roman infantry, at the same time that they were engaged both in front and flank with Hannibal's African and Spanish foot, effectually decided the fortune of the day. (Polyb. iii. 115-118; Liv. xxii. 46-48.) Appian, whose account of the battle of Cannae (Annib. 20-24) differs very much from that of Polybius, and is far less probable, assigns the command of the left wing of the Carthaginian army to Hanno, and that of the right to Mago, and does not mention Hasdrubal at all. It is more singular, that after this time his name does not occur again either in Polybius or Livy.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Dec 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
TARANTO (Ancient city) PUGLIA
Hegesippus. Of Tarentum, a writer ofOpsartutika (Athen. x. p. 429, d.; xii. p. 516, c.; Pollux, vi. 10.)
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