These and similar phrases, some of which have already been quoted, imply poetical creativeness. They tend to justify the estimate of the genius of Ennius, indicated in the language of high admiration applied to him by Lucretius,-- Ennius ut noster cecinit, qui primus amoeno Detulit ex Helicone perenni fronde coronam, Per gentes Italas hominum quae clara clueret;[99] and in the signs of the careful study of the Annals which may be traced in the elaborate workmanship of the Aeneid. The longest specimen of narrative vivified by poetical feeling, from the hand of Ennius, is the passage in which the vestal Ilia relates to her sister the dream that portended her great and strange destiny:-- Excita cum tremulis anus attulit artubu' lumen, Talia commemorat lacrimans, exterrita somno. Eurudica prognata, pater quam noster amavit, Vires vitaque corpu' meum nunc deserit omne. Nam me visus homo pulcher per amoena salicta Et ripas raptare locosque novos; ita sola Postilla, germana soror, errare videbar Tardaque vestigare et quaerere te neque posse Corde capessere: semita nulla pedem stabilibat. Exin compellare pater me voce videtur His verbis: 'O gnata, tibi sunt ante ferendae Aerumnae, post ex fluvio fortuna resistet.' Haec ecfatu' pater, germana, repente recessit Nec sese dedit in conspectum, corde cupitus, Quanquam multa manus ad caeli caerula templa Tendebam lacrimans et blanda voce vocabam: Vix aegro cum corde meo me somnu' reliquit.[100] Though these lines are rough and inharmonious as compared with the rhythm of Catullus or Virgil, yet they flow more smoothly and rapidly than any of the other fragments preserved from Ennius. The impression of gentleness and tender affection produced by the speech of Ilia, implies some dramatic skill in the conception of character. And there is real imaginative power shown in the sense of hurry and surprise, of vague awe and helplessness conveyed in the lines-- Nam me visus homo pulcher per amoena salicta, etc. From this passage Virgil has borrowed one of the finest touches in his delineation of the passion of Dido, the sense of horror and desolation haunting the Carthaginian queen in her dreams-- Agit ipse furentem In somnis ferus Aeneas: semperque relinqui Sola sibi, semper longam incomitata videtur Ire viam, et Tyrios deserta quaerere terra. Another of the most impressive passages in the early books of the Aeneid--the dream in which Hector appears to Aeneas[101]--was evidently suggested by the description which Ennius gave of the appearance of the shade of Homer to himself. Some of his dramatic fragments, also, as for instance the scene between Hecuba and Cassandra already referred to, show a real power of conceiving and representing passionate situations.