Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 8.djvu/467

Rh E N N E N N 447 ENNISCORTHY, a market-town of Wexford county, Ireland, 13 miles N.N.W. of Wexford, on the side of a steep hill above the Slaney, which here becomes navigable for barges of a large size. It is on the line of railway between Dublin and Wexford. It possesses tanneries, breweries, flour mills, a woollen factory, and a distillery. Ennis- corthy was taken by Cromwell in 1649, and in 1798 was stormed and burned by the rebels, whose main forces encamped on an eminence called &quot; Vinegar Hill,&quot; which overlooks the town from the east. The old castle of Eimiscorthy, a massive square -pile with a round tower at each corner, is one of the earliest military structures of the Anglo-Norman invaders. Population in 1871, 5594. ENNISKILLEN, a municipal and parliamentary borough and market town of Ireland, capital of the county of Fermanagh, province of Ulster, is situated on an island in the strait or river which connects the upper and lower lakes of Lough Erne, 102 miles N,W, from Dublin and 22 miles from Clones by railway. The town occupies the whole island, and is connected with two suburbs on the mainland on each side by two bridges. It has a brewery, two tanneries, and a small manufactory of cutlery, and a considerable trade in corn, pork, and flax. The chief public buildings are the parish church, the Roman Catholic chapel, the Presbyterian and Methodist meeting houses, the county court-house, the town-hall, the royal school founded by Charles I., and the infirmary. In 1689 Enniskillen defeated a superior force sent against it by James II.; and part of the defenders of the town were subsequently formed into a regiment of cavalry, which still retains the name of the Enniskillen Dragoons. The town returns a member to parliament. Population in 1871, 5836. EXXIUS, Q. Although Ennius is known to us only from fragments of his writings and from ancient testimony, yet there is sufficient evidence from both sources to justify us in assigning to him a position of great eminence and influence in Roman literature. Although not the creator of that literature, for he is later in date, not only than Livius Andronicus and Naivius, but than Plautus, yet he did more than any of the early writers to impart to it a character of serious elevation, and thereby to make it truly representative of Rome. The influence of Na3vius was little felt by subsequent writers; and, although the works of Plautushave enjoyed a happier fortune than those of Ennius, yet Latin comedy was essentially an exotic product, and stood in no direct relation to Roman life, nor to the deepest and most permanent moods of the national mind. On the other hand, both Lucretius and Virgil may be regarded ay inheriting the spirit of Ennius ; and in many fragments of his various works we recognize his affinity with the genius of Roman history, oratory, and satire. The circumstances of his life naturally fitted him to become the chief medium of contact between the art and intelligence of Greece and the practical energy and com manding character of Rome. He was born among the Calabrian mountains (&quot; Calabris in montibus ortus&quot;) in the small town of Rudiae, in the year 239 B.C., one year after the date of the first dramatic representation of Livius Andronicus, and two years after the end of the first Punic war. Oscan was the language of the district in which Rudue was situated ; but, as it is called by Strabo &quot;EXXrjvis TroAi?, and as Ennius is spoken of as &quot; semi-Graecus,&quot; Greek was probably the language in common use among the cultivated classes. Since the subjugation of Italy, and the settlement of Roman and Latin colonies in the conquered districts, the knowledge of Latin must have been spread among the allies who sent their contingents to the Roman armies. Ennius testified to his appreciation of the intellec tual gain derived from the possession of various languages by using, in reference to his knowledge of Oscan, Greek, and Latin, the expression that &quot;he had three hearts&quot; (Gell. xvii. 17), the word &quot;cor&quot; being used by him, as by many other Latin authors, as the seat of intelligence. Through the access which these languages gave to the ideas and sentiments of which they were the organs, Ennius was able to combine the culture of Greece, the fresh feeling and inspiration of Italy, the elevated mood and &quot; imperial patriotism of Rome,&quot; in laying the strong foundation of the national literature. He is said (Serv. on jn. vii. 691) to have claimed descent from one of the legendary kings of his native district, the &quot; Messapus equum domitor who is introduced by Virgil (in recognition of the poetical fame of his reputed descendant) as coming to the gathering of the Italian clans accompanied by his followers, chanting their native songs, &quot;Ibant tequati numero rcgemque canebant.&quot; This consciousness of ancient lineage is in accordance with the high self-confident tone of his mind, with his sympathy with the dominant genius of the Roman republic, and with his personal relations to the members of her great families. The exemption from war which his native district enjoyed during the first twenty years of his life afforded him leisure to acquire the culture which he turned to use in later life ; and the vicinity of Tarentum afforded him favourable opportunities for familiarizing himself with the dramatic art of Greece. But of his early years nothing is directly known, and we first hear of him in middle life as serving, with the rank of centurion, in Sardinia, in the year 204 B.C., where he attracted the attention of the Quaestor Cato, and was taken by him to Rome in that year. This personal service in the second Punic war, the most momentous struggle in which Rome was ever engaged, must have deepened his interest in the national fortunes, and contributed to that knowledge of men, and especially of the soldierly character, which was afterwards largely displayed in his epic and dramatic poetry. As Cato made it a reproach to M. Fulvius Nobilior that he had taken Ennius, after he became known as a poet, along with him in his ^Etolian campaign (Cicero, Tusc. Disp., i. 2), we may perhaps infer that it was the personal qualities of the man rather than the genius or culture of the poet which recommended the Messapian soldier to his regard. From the time of his arrival in Rome till his death in 169 B.C., he devoted himself actively to various kinds of literary production, and probably to giving instruction in Greek, for which a great demand existed among the families of more liberal ideas among the Roman aristocracy. He lived on the Aventine, &quot; in a plain and simple way, attended only by a single maid-servant &quot; (to quote the words of Jerome in his continuation of the Eusebian Chronicle), and enjoying the friendship of the foremost men in tin state, such as the great Scipio and M. Fulvius Nobilior, the conqueror of ^Etolia. So strong was the bond of friend ship w r hich united him to the former of these men, that a bust of the poet was placed after death in the tomb of the Scipios, between those of the conqueror of Hannibal and the conqueror of Antiochus. He accompanied M. Fulvius Nobilior in his yEtolian campaign, in the year 189 B.C., and was present at the capture of Ambracia, which formed the subject of one of his dramas. The representa tion of this drama probably took place at the celebration of the general s triumph two years later. Through the influence of his son, the poet obtained the privilege of Roman citizenship, a fact commemorated by him in a line of the Annals &quot; No3 sumu Romani qui fuvimus ante Rutlini.&quot; He died at the age of 70, immediately after producing the tragedy of Thyvstes. In the last book of his epic