LITERATURE AND PHILOSOPHY.--The intercourse of the Romans with the Greeks opened to the former a new world of art, literature, and philosophy, and a knowledge of other habits and modes of life. There were those who regarded the Greek authors and artists with sympathy, and showed an intelligent enthusiasm for the products of Greek genius. Under the patronage of the _Scipios_, Roman poets wrote in imitation of Greek models. Such were _Plautus_ (who died in 184), and the less original, but more refined, _Terence_ (185-159), who had been the slave of a senator. _Ennius_ (239-169), a Calabrian Greek, wrote epics, and also tragedies and comedies. Him the later Romans regarded as the father of their literature. The beginnings of historical writing--which go beyond mere chronicles and family histories--appear, as in the lost work on Roman history by _M. Portias Cato_ (Cato the Censor, 234-149). The great historian of this period, however, was the Greek _Polybius_. The Greek philosophy was introduced, in spite of the vigorous opposition of such austere conservatives as Cato. _Panaetius_ (185-112), the Stoic from _Rhodes_, had a cordial reception at Rome. The Stoic teaching was adapted to the Roman mind. The Platonic philosophy was brought in by _Carneades_. This was frequently more acceptable to orators and statesmen. Along with the _Stoic_, the _Epicurean_ school found adherents. Cato--who, although a historian and an orator, was, in theory and practice, a rigid man, with the simple ways of the old time--procured the banishment of_ Carneades_, together with _Critolaus_ the Peripatetic, and the Stoic _Diogenes_. The schools of oratory he caused to be shut up. He did what he could to prevent the introduction of the healing art, as it was practiced by the Greeks. He preferred the old-fashioned domestic remedies.