Cic. _N.D._ i. 119, 'Euhemerus, quem noster et interpretatus et secutus est praeter ceteros Ennius.' (_d_) _Protreptica_ or _Praecepta_, containing moral maxims. (_e_) _Hedyphagetica_, 'On Gastronomy,' modelled on a hexameter poem by Archestratus (about B.C. 310). (_f_) _Sota_, so called from Σωτάδης, after whom the Sotadean metre has been named. The book was probably of a lascivious nature. (_g_) Epigrams; the chief of which are mentioned above. 4. The _Annales_, an epic poem in hexameters, which dealt with the history of Rome down to the beginning of the Third Macedonian War. It contained eighteen Books; there are about six hundred lines extant. The following is a sketch of the contents: Book i., from Aeneas to the death of Romulus; ii., reigns of Numa Pompilius, Tullus Hostilius, Ancus Martius; iii., the last three kings; iv.-v., the republic down to the war with Pyrrhus; vi., the war with Pyrrhus; vii., First Punic War, etc.; viii.-ix., Second Punic War; x.-xii., Second Macedonian War, Cato's consulship; xiii.-xv., War with Antiochus, subjugation of the Aetolians; xvi.-xviii., from Istrian War to beginning of Third Macedonian War. _Ennius' services_ to Latin literature lay partly in introducing the use of the hexameter and other metres from Greek in place of the old Saturnian metre. His versification is, of course, rough in comparison with that of later writers, the principal points being (1) Harsh elisions. _Ann._ l. 199, 'Hos et ego in pugna vici victusque sum ab isdem.' (2) Quadrisyllable endings; l. 23, 'Est locus Hesperiam quam mortales perhibebant.' (3) Absence of caesura, or abrupt break, l. 188, 'Bellipotentes sunt magis quam sapientipotentes'; l. 511, 'Cui par imber et ignis, spiritus et gravis terra.' (4) Omission of _-s_ in scansion, as in the last two examples. (5) Short vowels sometimes lengthened; l. 86, 'Omnibus cura viris uter esset induperator.' (6) Prosaic lines (often spondaic); l. 34, 'Olli respondit rex Albai longai'; l. 174, 'Cives Romani tunc facti sunt Campani.' (7) Harsh instances of tmesis; l. 586, 'Saxo cere comminuit brum': l. 605, 'Massili portabant iuvenes ad litora tanas.' (8) Apocope; l. 451 'replet te laetificum _gau_'; l. 561, 'divom domus altisonum _cael_'; l. 563, 'endo suam _do_' (= in suam domum). (9) Alliteration used freely; l. 113, 'O Tite tute Tati tibi tanta tiranne tulisti'; l. 452, 'At tuba terribili sonitu taratantara dixit.' (10) Non-elision; l. 275, 'Miscent inter sese inimicitiam agitantes.' _Influence of Ennius._--This is seen in Lucretius, and to a very great extent in Virgil. For Lucretius' appreciation of Ennius see Lucr. i. 117-9. Cf. also _Ann._ l. 150, 'Postquam lumina sis oculis bonus Ancus reliquit,' and Lucr. iii. 1025, 'Lumina sis oculis etiam bonus Ancus reliquit.'