A speech of Hecuba, on seeing the dead body of Polydorus, and in which she reproaches the Greeks as having no punishment for the murder of a parent or a guest, seems to have been added by Ennius himself, at least it is not in the Greek original of Euripides. On the whole, indeed, the _Hecuba_ of Ennius appears, so far as we can judge from the fragments, to be the least servile of his imitations. In Columna’s edition of Ennius, an opportunity is afforded by corresponding quotations from the Greek _Hecuba_, of comparing the manner in which the Latin poet has varied, amplified, or compressed the thoughts of his original. In Euripides, Hecuba, while persuading Ulysses to intercede for Polixena, says— “Τὸ δ’ αξίωμα, καν κακως λέγῃς, τὸ σόν Πείσει. Λόγος γαρ ἔκ τ’ αδοξούντων ἰων, Και ’κ των δοκούντων αὐτὸς, οὐ ταυτὸν σθένει.” Ennius imitates this as follows: “Hæc tu, etsi perverse dices, facile Achivos flexeris; Namque opulenti cum loquuntur pariter atque ignobiles, Eadem dicta, eademque oratio æqua non æque valent.” This has been copied by Plautus, and from him by Moliere in his _Amphitrion_— “Tous les discours sont des sottises Partant d’un homme sans eclat; Ce seroient paroles exquisses, Si c’etoit un grand qui parlàt.” The last link in this chain of imitation, is Pope’s well-known lines— “What woful stuff this madrigal would be, In some starved hackney sonnetteer or me! But let a lord once own the happy lines, How the wit brightens, how the style refines!” _Iliona sive Polydorus_.—Priam, during the siege of Troy, had entrusted his son Polydorus to the care of Polymnestor, King of Thrace, who was married to Iliona, daughter of Priam, and slew his guest, in order to possess himself of the treasure which had been sent along with him. The only passage of the play which remains, is one in which the shade of Polydorus calls on Hecuba to arise and bury her murdered son. _Iphigenia_.—Ennius, as already mentioned, appears invariably to have translated from Euripides, in preference to Sophocles, when the same subject had been treated by both these poets. Sophocles had written a tragedy on the topic of the well-known _Iphigenia in Aulis_ of Euripides; but it is the latter piece which has been adopted by the Roman poet.