in the rapid vehemence of passion or the subtle fluency of persuasion. The fragments of Ennius, on the other hand, scarcely afford sufficient ground for attributing to him a genuine dramatic faculty. But, as the citizen of a republic in which action was first matured in council, and living in the age when public speech first became a recognised power in the State, it was incumbent on him to embody in 'his abstract and chronicle of the time' the speech of the orator no less than the achievement of the soldier. In his estimate of character this power of speech is honoured as the fitting accompaniment of the wisdom of the statesman. In the following lines, for instance, he laments the substitution of military for civil preponderance in public affairs. Pellitur e medio sapientia, vi geritur res: Spernitur orator bonus, horridu' miles amatur: Haut doctis dictis certantes, sed maledictis Miscent inter sese inimicitiam agitantes; Non ex jure manu consertum, sed magi' ferro Rem repetunt, regnumque petunt, vadunt solida vi[42]. Many lines of the Annals are evidently fragments of speeches. The most remarkable of these passages is one from a speech of Pyrrhus, and is characterised by Cicero as expressing 'sentiments truly regal and worthy of the race of the Aeacidae[43].' This fragment, although evincing nothing of the fluency, the passion, or the argumentative subtlety of debate, yet suggests the power of a great orator by its grave authoritative appeal to the moral dignity of man:-- Nec mi aurum posco, nec mi pretium dederitis: Non cauponantes bellum, sed belligerantes, Ferro non auro vitam cernamus utrique. Vosne velit an me regnare era quidve ferat Fors, Virtute experiamur. Et hoc simul accipe dictum: Quorum virtutei belli fortuna pepercit, Eorundem libertati me parcere certum est. Dono ducite, doque volentibu' cum magnis dis[44]. Of the same severe and lofty tone is that appeal of Appius Claudius, blind and in extreme old age, to the Senate, when wavering in its resolution, and inclined to make peace with Pyrrhus:-- Quo vobis mentes rectae quae stare solebant Antehac, dementes sese flexere viai[45]? As Milton, in his representation of the great debate in Pandemonium, idealised and glorified the stately and serious speech of his own time, so Ennius, in his graphic delineation of the age in which he lived, gave expression to that high magnanimous mood in accordance with which the acts of Roman statesmen were assailed or vindicated, and the policy of the State was shaped before Senate and people-- indu foro lato sanctoque senatu.