The Duilian inscription of 260 B.C.—doubtless authentic in the main though found in an imperial copy[7]—is our only pre-Ennian fragment of prose that contains several complete sentences. This inscription is far more fulsome and boastful than the modest Scipionic epitaphs of two generations later, a fact probably due to Duilius’ sojourn in Sicily where he could see verbose honorary tablets at every hand. In spirit and content it is Sicilian, but its phrasing and diction are normal Latin. Its longest sentence is rambling, badly coordinated and illogically constructed despite its periodic placement of the verbs. The man who composed it had no feeling for lapidary style: enque eodem mac [istratud bene] [r]em navebos marid consol primos c[eset copiasque] [c]lasesque navales primos ornavet pa[ravetque], [c]umque eis navebos claseis Poenicas omn[is, item ma-] [x]umas copias Cartaciniensis praesente[d Hanibaled] [d]ictatored ol[or]om in altod marid pucn[andod vicet] [v]ique nave[is cepe]t cum socieis septer[esmom unum quin—] [queresm]osque triresmosque naveis X[XX, merset XIII] etc. [—and in the same magistracy he was the first consul to fight successfully upon the sea with ships, and he first equipped and prepared a fleet, and by fighting on the high seas he with his ships overcame the Punic fleet and the very great Carthaginian forces commanded by their dictator Hannibal, and by force he captured their ships with their marines, one septereme, and thirty quinqueremes and triremes, and sank thirteen, etc.] A man who composes thus is not only “hypnotized by the exuberance of his own verbosity” but unpracticed in the art of logical expression. Our first passage of continuous prose comes from Ennius’ _Euhemerus_, quoted verbatim by Lactantius. A fair example is the following:[8] Exim Saturnus uxorem duxit Opem. Titan qui maior natu erat postulat ut ipse regnaret. ibi Vesta mater eorum et sorores Ceres atque Ops suadent Saturno, uti de regno ne concedat fratri. ibi Titan, qui facie deterior esset quam Saturnus, idcirco et quod videbat matrem atque sorores suas operam dare uti Saturnus regnaret, concessit ei ut is regnaret. itaque pactus est cum Saturno, uti si quid liberum virile secus ei natum esset, ne quid educaret. Id eius rei causa fecit, uti ad suos gnatos regnum rediret. tum Saturno filius qui primus natus est, eum necaverunt. deinde posterius nati sunt gemini, Iuppiter atque Iuno. tum Iunonem Saturno in conspectum dedere atque Iovem clam abscondunt dantque eum Vestae educandum celantes Saturnum. item Neptunum clam Saturno Ops parit eumque clanculum abscondit, etc. For this passage I shall use Professor Rand’s translation though it introduces a modicum of style into the expression: