This chapter offers an analysis of the reception of Ennian tragedy in republican Latin poetry, focussing on Pacuvius, Accius, Lucretius, and Catullus. The main methodology employed is that of intertextual analysis. The main thesis advanced is that, while Ennian tragedy seems to have retained its generic distinction and importance in subsequent tragic poetry of the second century bce, by the late Republic, Ennius seems to be more important because of what he has come to represent as a poetic figure and as a repository of poetic material than as a tragedian or epicist.

An exploration of the cultural mechanism of quotation in modernity and antiquity. An overview of the process of ancient poetic fragmentation (how fragments of poetry are made) and a brief history of scholarly editions and collections of Latin poetic fragments. An overview of techniques used by Cicero to quote poetry, and the impact of his methods upon the modern understanding of fragmentary Latin poetry.

In view of Lucretius’ apparently overt and insistent Ennianizing poetics, many scholars have suggested that Latin poetry, and especially epic poetry, was dominated by Ennian aesthetic principles until these were finally rejected by Catullus and the other New Poets writing around the time of Lucretius. In order to assess more accurately the generic impact of Ennius’ Annals, I analyze the remains of republican epic before Lucretius without the benefit of Lucretian hindsight, showing that the evidence, such as it is, for reflexive imitation of Ennius by subsequent Latin epicists can be rejected on two counts. On the one hand, many of the extant fragments show no evidence of Ennian influence or imitation. On the other, where we can detect engagement with Ennius, we see not inert imitation but the kind of sophisticated, self-conscious allusive gestures that characterize much of Hellenistic and Latin poetry. I conclude by highlighting some aspects of the Annals that were productive for subsequent poets’ engagement with Ennius.