Lucius Accius (; 170 – c. 86 BC), or Lucius Attius, was a

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

tragic

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

and literary scholar. Accius was born in 170 BC at Pisaurum, a town founded in the Ager Gallicus in 184 BC. He was the son of a

freedman A freedman or freedwoman is a person who has been released from slavery, usually by legal means. Historically, slaves were freed by manumission (granted freedom by their owners), emancipation (granted freedom as part of a larger group), or self- ...

and a freedwoman, probably from Rome. The year of his death is unknown, but he must have lived to a great age, since

Cicero Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, orator, writer and Academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises tha ...

(born 106 BC, hence 64 years younger) writes of having conversed with him on literary matters.

Literary works

Accius was a prolific writer and enjoyed a very high reputation. The titles and considerable fragments (about 700 lines) of some fifty plays have been preserved. Judging from the titles and fragments, scholars have surmised that most, if not all, of these poems were tragic in nature, although

Pliny the Younger Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus (born Gaius Caecilius or Gaius Caecilius Cilo; 61 – ), better known in English as Pliny the Younger ( ), was a lawyer, author, and magistrate of Ancient Rome. Pliny's uncle, Pliny the Elder, helped raise and e ...

ranks him among the erotic poets. His career as a poet can be traced over the course of 36 years from B.C. 140, to B.C. 104. Most of his poetical works were imitations or free translations of the Greek, especially

Aeschylus Aeschylus (, ; ; /524 – /455 BC) was an ancient Greece, ancient Greek Greek tragedy, tragedian often described as the father of tragedy. Academic knowledge of the genre begins with his work, and understanding of earlier Greek tragedy is large ...

. The earliest of these was most likely the ''Atreus'', which was performed in 140, but is now lost. He also wrote on some Roman subjects, one of which, an examination of the tyranny of L. Tarquinius Superbus and his expulsion by

Lucius Junius Brutus Lucius Junius Brutus (died ) was the semi-legendary founder of the Roman Republic and traditionally one of its two first consuls. Depicted as responsible for the expulsion of his uncle, the Roman king Tarquinius Superbus after the suicide of L ...

, was titled ''Brutus'', and was probably written in honor of his patron D. Brutus. His favorite subjects were the legends of the

Trojan War The Trojan War was a legendary conflict in Greek mythology that took place around the twelfth or thirteenth century BC. The war was waged by the Achaeans (Homer), Achaeans (Ancient Greece, Greeks) against the city of Troy after Paris (mytho ...

and the house of

Pelops In Greek mythology, Pelops (; ) was king of Pisa in the Peloponnesus region (, lit. "Pelops' Island"). He was the son of Tantalus and the father of Atreus. He was venerated at Olympia, where his cult developed into the founding myth of the ...

. While only fragments remain, the most important of which were preserved by Cicero, they seem sufficient to justify the terms of admiration in which Accius is spoken of by the ancient writers. He is particularly praised for the strength and vigor of his language, and the sublimity of his thoughts. Although the grandiloquence of his literary style was on occasion mocked by some of his peers, he continued to be cited by other writers long after his death. Accius wrote other works of a literary character: ''Libri Didascalicon'', a treatise in verse on the history of Greek and Roman poetry, and dramatic art in particular; also ''Libri Pragmaticon'', ''Parerga'', and ''Praxidica'', of which no fragments remain; and a

hexameter Hexameter is a metrical line of verses consisting of six feet (a "foot" here is the pulse, or major accent, of words in an English line of poetry; in Greek as well as in Latin a "foot" is not an accent, but describes various combinations of s ...

''Annales'' containing the history of Rome, like that of

Ennius Quintus Ennius (; ) was a writer and poet who lived during the Roman Republic. He is often considered the father of Roman poetry. He was born in the small town of Rudiae, located near modern Lecce (ancient ''Calabria'', today Salento), a town ...

As a grammarian

Accius also attempted to introduce innovations in Latin

orthography An orthography is a set of convention (norm), conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, punctuation, Word#Word boundaries, word boundaries, capitalization, hyphenation, and Emphasis (typography), emphasis. Most national ...

and

grammar In linguistics, grammar is the set of rules for how a natural language is structured, as demonstrated by its speakers or writers. Grammar rules may concern the use of clauses, phrases, and words. The term may also refer to the study of such rul ...

, most of which were attempts to change written Latin to more faithfully reproduce its actual pronunciation. Few of these caught on, although his preference against giving Greek names Latin endings had quite a few supporters, particularly

Varro Marcus Terentius Varro (116–27 BCE) was a Roman polymath and a prolific author. He is regarded as ancient Rome's greatest scholar, and was described by Petrarch as "the third great light of Rome" (after Virgil and Cicero). He is sometimes call ...

, who dedicated his ''De antiquitate litterarum'' to Accius. A spelling convention of writing long vowels double (such as ''aa'' for long ''ā'') is also associated with him and is found in texts concurrent with his lifetime.

Politics and temperament

Accius was politically

conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...

, and generally noted for his dignity and reserve. He did, however, believe that one with literary gifts, such as himself, ought to be accorded more respect than someone who, through no effort of their own, was merely born into the nobility. He was, by some accounts, a self-important man, and some writers expressed a wry amusement at the larger-than-life statues of himself that he had erected in the temple of the

Muse In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, the Muses (, ) were the Artistic inspiration, inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge embodied in the poetry, lyric p ...

Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/24 79), known in English as Pliny the Elder ( ), was a Roman Empire, Roman author, Natural history, naturalist, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the Roman emperor, emperor Vesp ...

, ''

Naturalis Historia The ''Natural History'' () is a Latin work by Pliny the Elder. The largest single work to have survived from the Roman Empire to the modern day, the ''Natural History'' compiles information gleaned from other ancient authors. Despite the work' ...

'' 34.19 A fragment of Accius' play ''Atreus'' features the line '' oderint dum metuant'' ("let them hate, so long as they fear").

Citations

General sources

* G. Manuwald, ''Accius und seine Zeit'' (Würzburg 2002). * B. Baldarelli, ''Accius und die vortrojanische Pelopidensage'' (Paderborn 2004). * The cited also includes these authorities: * Boissier, ''Le Poète Accius'', 1856 * L. Müller, ''De Accii fabulis Disputatio'' (1890) * Ribbeck, ''Geschichte der römischen Dichtung'' (1892) * Editions of the tragic fragments by Ribbeck (1897), of the others by Bährens (1886) * Plessis, ''Poésie latine'' (1909)

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Accius, Lucius 170 BC 80s BC deaths 2nd-century BC Romans 1st-century BC Romans 2nd-century BC writers in Latin 1st-century BC writers in Latin Ancient Roman tragic dramatists People from Pisaurum 170s BC births Attii 170 BC births Accii