After his example, Ennius in his -Ambracia- described from personal observation the siege of that city by his patron Nobilior in 565.(50)

We may form a different opinion from Ennius as to the value of his new gospel; but, if in the case of faith it does not matter so much what, as how, men believe, we cannot refuse recognition and admiration to the Roman poets of the sixth century.

In those days, scholars were highly beloved, [2060]honoured, esteemed; as old Ennius by Scipio Africanus, Virgil by Augustus; Horace by Meceanas: princes' companions; dear to them, as Anacreon to Polycrates; Philoxenus to Dionysius, and highly rewarded.

The epitaph composed by Ennius for his own tomb, has both the faults last mentioned.

It could not indeed venture on open attacks, and such direct additions as were made by its means to religious conceptions e.g. the Pater Caelus formed by Ennius from the Roman Saturnus in imitation of the Greek Uranoswere, while Hellenistic, of no great importance.

Thus, as is well known, Ennius of Rudiae received burgess-rights from one of the triumvirs, Q. Fulvius Nobilior, on occasion of the founding of the burgess-colonies of Potentia and Pisaurum (Cic. Brut.