Ennius

Quintus Ennius (c. 239–169 BCE) was a Roman poet and writer born in Rudiae, in southern Italy. He is frequently described as the father of Roman poetry for introducing Greek literary forms and the hexameter epic to Latin literature, and for shaping early Latin style and genre.

Ennius moved to Rome as a young man, studied Greek learning, and produced a large body of work in Latin, spanning epic, tragedy, comedy, and didactic poetry. He traveled in the Hellenistic world and gained influence with Roman patrons; his mastery of Greek meters and dramatic forms helped to lay the foundations of Roman literary tradition.

His best-known work was the Annales, an epic in dactylic hexameter recounting Roman history from its legendary origins to his own time. He also translated some of Homer into Latin and wrote a variety of other poems and dramatic pieces in Latin, of which only fragments survive through later authors. His effort to render Greek heroic and tragic conventions into Latin set a precedent for later poets such as Virgil and Horace.

Ennius’s work established the model for Latin epic and drama, and his influence persisted in Roman literature for generations. He died in Utica, in North Africa, in 169 BCE.