[2] Although only fragments of his works survive, his influence in Latin literature was significant, particularly in his use of Greek literary models.

[5] The partially Hellenised city of Rudiae (in modern Apulia), his place of birth, was certainly in the area settled by the Messapians.

And this, he used to say, according to Aulus Gellius, had endowed him with a triple linguistic and cultural heritage, fancifully described as "three hearts… Greek, Oscan and Latin".

[6] The public career of Ennius first really emerges in middle life, when he was serving in the army with the rank of centurion during the Second Punic War.

But he himself lived plainly and simply in the literary quarter on the Aventine Hill with the poet Caecilius Statius, a fellow adapter of Greek plays.

He compared himself, in contemplation of the close of the great work of his life, to a gallant horse which, after having often won the prize at the Olympic Games, obtained his rest when weary with age.

A similar feeling of pride at the completion of a great career is expressed in the memorial lines which he composed to be placed under his bust after death: "Let no one weep for me, or celebrate my funeral with mourning; for I still live, as I pass to and fro through the mouths of men.

"[7] Ennius continued the nascent literary tradition by writing plays in Greek and Roman style (praetextae and palliatae), as well as his most famous work, a historical epic in hexameters called the Annales.

Other minor works include the Epicharmus, Epigrammata, the Euhemerus, the Hedyphagetica, Praecepta/Protrepticus, Saturae (or Satires), Scipio, and Sota.

[12] The Euhemerus presented a theological doctrine based on the ideas of Euhemerus of Messene, who argued that the gods of Olympus were not supernatural powers that interfere in the lives of humans, but rather heroes of old who after death were eventually regarded as deities due to their valor, bravery, or cultural impact (this belief is now known as euhemerism).