This poet, who has generally received the glorious appellation of the Father of Roman Song, was a native of Rudiæ, a town in Calabria, and lived from the year of Rome 515 to 585(144). In his early youth he went to Sardinia; and, if Silius Italicus may be believed, he served in the Calabrian levies, which, in the year 538, followed Titus Manlius to the war which he waged in that island against the favourers of the Carthaginian cause(145). After the termination of the campaign, he continued to live for twelve years in Sardinia(146). He was at length brought to Rome by Cato, the Censor, who, in 550, visited Sardinia, on returning as quæstor from Africa(147). At Rome he fixed his residence on the Aventine hill, where he lived in a very frugal manner, having only a single servant maid as an attendant(148). He instructed, however, the Patrician youth in Greek, and acquired the friendship of many of the most illustrious men in the state. Being distinguished (like Æschylus, the great father of Grecian tragedy) in arms as well as letters, he followed M. Fulvius Nobilior during his expedition to Ætolia in 564(149); and in 569 he obtained the freedom of the city, through the favour of Quintus Fulvius Nobilior, the son of his former patron, Marcus(150). He was also protected by the elder Scipio Africanus, whom he is said to have accompanied in all his campaigns: “Hærebat doctus lateri, castrisque solebat Omnibus in medias Ennius ire tubas(151).” It is difficult, however, to see in what expeditions he could have attended this renowned general. His Spanish and African wars were concluded before Ennius was brought from Sardinia to Rome; and the campaign against Antiochus was commenced and terminated while he was serving under Fulvius Nobilior in Ætolia(152). In his old age he obtained the friendship of Scipio Nasica; and the degree of intimacy subsisting between them has been characterised by the well-known anecdote of their successively feigning to be from home(153). He is said to have been intemperate in drinking(154), which brought on the disease called _Morbus Articularis_, a disorder resembling the gout, of which he died at the age of seventy, just after he had exhibited his tragedy of Thyestes: “Ennius ipse pater dum pocula siccat iniqua, Hoc vitio tales fertur meruisse dolores(155).”