Ennius' Annals
Poetry and History

Brings together historical and literary perspectives to begin charting a new course for research on Ennius' masterpiece.

Cynthia Damon (Edited by), Joseph Farrell (Edited by)

9781108723169, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 6 April 2023

365 pages, 2 tables
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.9 cm, 0.529 kg

In the context of recent challenges to long-standing assumptions about the nature of Ennius' Annals and the editorial methods appropriate to the poem's fragmentary remains, this volume seeks to move Ennian studies forward on three axes. First, a re-evaluation of the literary and historical precedents for and building blocks of Ennius' poem in order to revise the history of early Latin literature. Second, a cross-fertilization of recent critical approaches to the fields of poetry and historiography. Third, reflection on the tools and methods that will best serve future literary and historical research on the Annals and its reception. Adopting different approaches to these broad topics, the fourteen papers in this volume illustrate how much can be said about Ennius' poem and its place in literary history independent of any commitment to inevitably speculative totalizing interpretations.

Part I. Innovation: 1. Hybrid Ennius: cultural and poetic multiplicity in the Annals Patrick Glauthier
2. History, philosophy, and the annals Virginia Fabrizi
3. The gods in Ennius Joseph Farrell
Part II. Authority: 4. Allegory and authority in Latin verse-historiography Thomas Biggs
5. Reading Ennius' Annals and Cato's Origins at Rome Jackie Elliott
6. Looking for auctoritas in Ennius' Annals Cynthia Damon
7. Ennius' Annals as source and model for historical speech? Lydia Spielberg
Part III. Influence: 8. Ennius and the fata librorum Sander M. Goldberg
9. How Ennian was Latin epic between the Annals and Lucretius? Jason S. Nethercut
10. Livy's Ennius Ayelet Haimson Lushkov
11. Ennius' Annals and Tacitus' Annals A. J. Woodman
Part IV. Interpretation: 12. Ennius and Lucilius: good companion | bad companion Brian W. Breed
13. Ennius' Annals as historical evidence in ancient and modern commentaries Jessica H. Clark
14. Commenting on the Annals: Steuart, Skutsch, and Ennius Christina Shuttleworth Kraus.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: poetry & poets [DSC], Literary studies: classical, early & medieval [DSBB]