The diction and rhythm of the poem, as well as the more direct tribute of personal acknowledgment[374], prove that he was an admiring student of his own countryman Ennius, to whom in some qualities of his temperament and genius he bore a certain resemblance. Many lines, phrases, and archaic words in Lucretius, such as-- Per gentis Italas hominum quae clara clueret,-- Lumina sis oculis etiam bonus Ancu' reliquit,-- inde super terras fluit agmine dulci,-- multa munita virum vi; caerula caeli Templa; Acherusia templa; luminis oras; famul infimus; induperator; Graius homo, etc.-- have a clear ring of the older poet. The few allusions to Roman history in the poem, as, for instance, the line-- Scipiadas, belli fulmen, Carthaginis horror,-- the specification at iii. 833 of the second Punic War as a momentous crisis in human affairs,--the description at v. 1226 of a great naval disaster, such as happened in the first Punic War,--the introduction there of elephants into the picture of the pomp and circumstance of war,--suggest the inference that, just as events and personages of the earlier history of England live in the imaginations of many English readers from their representation in the historical plays of Shakspeare, so the past history of his country lived for Lucretius in the representation of Ennius. But of the national pride by which the older poet was animated, the work of Lucretius bears only scanty traces. The feeling which moved him to identify the puissant energy pervading the universe with 'the mother of the Aeneadae,' and the motive of his prayer for peace addressed to that Power,-- Nam neque nos agere hoc patriai tempore iniquo,--