land, the Argo. But the instances in which Ennius has really misunderstood the original are rare.
42. III. XI. Roman Franchise More Difficult of Acquisition.
43. Beyond doubt the ancients were right in recognizing a sketch of the poet's own character in the passage in the seventh book of the Annals, where the consul calls to his side the confidant,
quocum bene saepe libenter Mensam sermonesque suos rerumque suarum Congeriem partit, magnam cum lassus diei Partem fuisset de summis rebus regundis Consilio indu foro lato sanctoque senatu: Cui res audacter magnas parvasque iocumque Eloqueretur, cuncta simul malaque et bona dictu Evomeret, si qui vellet, tutoque locaret. Quocum multa volup ac gaudia clamque palamque, Ingenium cui nulla malum sententia suadet Ut faceret facinus lenis aut malus, doctus fidelis Suavis homo facundus suo contentus beatus Scitus secunda loquens in tempore commodus verbum Paucum, multa tenens antiqua sepulta, vetustas Quem fecit mores veteresque novosque tenentem, Multorum veterum leges divumque hominumque, Prudenter qui dicta loquive tacereve possit. In the line before the last we should probably read multarum leges divumque hominumque.
44. Euripides (Iph. in Aul. 956) defines the soothsayer as a man,
Os olig' alethe, polla de pseuon legei Tuchon, otan de me, tuche oioichetai This is turned by the Latin translator into the following diatribe against the casters of horoscopes:
-Astrologorum signa in caelo quaesit, observat, Iovis Cum capra aut nepa aut exoritur lumen aliquod beluae. Quod est ante pedes, nemo spectat: caeli scrutantur plagas. 45. III. XII. Irreligious Spirit.
46. In the Telephus we find him saying
Palam mutire plebeio piaculum est. 48. The following verses, excellent in matter and form, belong to the adaptation of the Phoenix of Euripides:
Sed virum virtute vera vivere animatum addecet, Fortiterque innoxium vocare adversum adversarios. Ea libertas est, qui pectus purum et firmum gestitat: Aliae res obnoxiosae nocte in obscura latent. In the -Scipio-, which was probably incorporated in the collection of miscellaneous poems, the graphic lines occurred:
mundus caeli vastus constitit silentio, Et Neptunus saevus undis asperis pausam dedit. Sol equis iter repressit ungulis volantibus; Constitere amnes perennes, arbores vento vacant. This last passage affords us a glimpse of the way in which the poet worked up his original poems. It is simply an expansion of the words which occur in the tragedy Hectoris Lustra (the original of which was probably by Sophocles) as spoken by a spectator of the combat between Hephaestus and the Scamander:
Constitit credo Scamander, arbores vento vacant, and the incident is derived from the Iliad (xxi. 381).
49. Thus in the Phoenix we find the line:
