The ''gens Ennia'' was a family of
Calabrian descent. It is known chiefly from a single individual,
Quintus Ennius, a soldier, dramatist, and poet, whom the Romans came to regard as the father of their literature. Ennius was born at
Rudiae
Rudiae (''Rusce'' in the local dialect and Ῥοδίαι in ancient Greek), was a former late 9th or early 8th centuries BCE human settlement. It is presently an archaeological park beside the San Pietro in Lama that runs south-west from the cit ...
, a village near
Brundisium
Brindisi ( , ) ; la, Brundisium; grc, Βρεντέσιον, translit=Brentésion; cms, Brunda), group=pron is a city in the region of Apulia in southern Italy, the capital of the province of Brindisi, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea.
Histo ...
in Calabria, in 239 BC. He claimed descent from the ancient lords of
Messapia. As a young man, he served as a soldier in the Roman army, rising to the rank of
centurion. At the age of thirty-eight, he came to Rome in the train of
Marcus Porcius Cato Marcus Porcius Cato can refer to:
*Cato the Elder (consul 195 BC)
*Cato the Younger (praetor 54 BC)
*Marcus Porcius Cato (consul 118 BC)
* Marcus Porcius Cato (consul 36)
*Marcus Porcius Cato (father of Cato the Younger)
*Marcus Porcius C ...
. Most of his works have been lost, or exist only in fragments, but he was greatly influential on later Roman writers, including
Vergil
Publius Vergilius Maro (; traditional dates 15 October 7021 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He composed three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: t ...
.
Members
*
Quintus Ennius, the dramatist.
* Manius Ennius, Prefect of the Camp under
Germanicus in AD 14, he suppressed a mutiny, executing two soldiers; but having exceeded his authority, he was put to flight and subsequently captured. He avoided death by arguing that his execution would constitute treason against both Germanicus and the emperor, and was able to lead the troops back to their winter quarters.
*
Lucius Ennius, an
eques in the time of
Tiberius
Tiberius Julius Caesar Augustus (; 16 November 42 BC – 16 March AD 37) was the second Roman emperor. He reigned from AD 14 until 37, succeeding his stepfather, the first Roman emperor Augustus. Tiberius was born in Rome in 42 BC. His father ...
, who forbade his prosecution on a charge of treason, after he allegedly melted a silver statue of the emperor.
*
Ennia Thrasylla
Ennia Thrasylla, (about 15 – 38, ''Ennia'' in Greek el, Έννίας, ''Ennia Thrasylla'' in Greek el, Έννία Θράσυλλα) was a Roman noblewoman who lived in the 1st century AD in the Roman Empire.
Family background
Ennia was of La ...
, wife of
Quintus Naevius Sutorius Macro,
Praetorian Prefect under Tiberius and his successor,
Caligula, with whom Ennia had an affair. After falling out of favour in AD 38, Macro and his wife were commanded to take their own lives.
* Lucius Ennius L. f. Ferox, a Roman soldier in the sixth Praetorian cohort during the time of
Vespasian
Vespasian (; la, Vespasianus ; 17 November AD 9 – 23/24 June 79) was a Roman emperor who reigned from AD 69 to 79. The fourth and last emperor who reigned in the Year of the Four Emperors, he founded the Flavian dynasty that ruled the Empi ...
. He lived at
Aquae Statiellae.
[Allan Chester Johnson, Paul Robinson Coleman-Norton, and Frank Card Bourne, ''Ancient Roman Statutes,'' University of Texas Press, Austin (1961), pp. 186.]
See also
*
List of Roman gentes
The gens (plural gentes) was a Roman family, of Italic or Etruscan origins, consisting of all those individuals who shared the same '' nomen'' and claimed descent from a common ancestor. It was an important social and legal structure in early ...
References
Roman gentes
{{Roman-gens-stub