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Ennius, Annals Vi: A Reply

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

T. J. Cornell
T. J. Cornell
Affiliation:
University College London
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Extract

Together with the majority of modern commentators, Professor Skutsch believes that the ‘devotio’ prayer in lines 191–4 of Ennius' Annals was spoken by the consul P. Decius Mus before the battle of Ausculum in 279 B.c. This seems to me unlikely for several reasons, and I am still not persuaded after reading his note (above).

Type
Shorter Notes
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 37 , Issue 2 , December 1987 , pp. 514 - 516
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1987

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References

1 Plut. Pyrrhus 21.7–15; Dion. Hal. 20.1–3; Liv. Per. 13; Oros. 4.1.19–22, etc. The sources are assembled and discussed in M. R. Torelli (ed.), Rerum Romanarum forties ab anno ccxcii ad annum cclxv a.Ch.n. (Pisa, 1978), 164–74. The article of G. Stievano, La supposta devotio di P. Decio Mure nel 279 a.C. Epigraphica 13 (1951), 3–23, is still worth consulting

2 MRR i.202, referring to A. Degrassi, Inscr Ital. XIII. 1.115

3 ‘Monuments and Roman Annalists’, in Moxon, I. S., Smart, J. D., Woodman, A. J. (edd.), Past Perspectives (Cambridge, 1986), 87–100; esp. 95–9.Google Scholar

4 Mercando, L., Ioppolo, G., Degrassi, A., Bull Com 79 (1963–1964), 34f.Google Scholar; cf. Torelli, M., Quad 1st Topogr Univ di Roma 5 (1968), 71–75Google Scholar; Roma medio-repubblicana (Exhibition catalogue, Rome, 1973), 103; Wiseman, art. cit. (n. 3), 95.Google Scholar

5 The same point applies a fortiori if Decius had attempted a devotio and survived; in that case he really would have been a ridiculus Mus, hardly a fit subject for epic treatment in the Annals.