The Life of Lucius Accius: A Glimpse into Italic Culture and Roman Tragedy
Excavations carried out between the late 19th and early 20th centuries at the nearby necropolis of Novilara unearthed nine stelae (mostly fragmented, one of which is particularly significant due to its inscription in an ancient Greek-Etruscan-Italic type of alphabet written from right to left, used in Italy during the 6th–5th centuries BCE), more than two hundred grave goods (most of which were lost in 1944 during a bombing that destroyed the National Archaeological Museum of the Marche in Ancona, where they were housed), and over three hundred tombs. These finds are dated between the late 9th and mid-6th centuries BCE and are attributed to the ancient Italic population known as the Picenes.
Pesaro and two Picene archaeological finds
The archaeological findings reveal that the region was inhabited by various ethnic groups besides the local population, due to migrations from the Siculi, Liburnians, Umbrians, Etruscans, and Gauls.
The grave goods from the 7th century BCE (Orientalizing period) demonstrate contact with early Greek colonization in Sicily and southern Italy, as evidenced by imported Egyptian glass-paste amulets and banquet and symposium pottery introduced by Greek settlers.
After the 6th century BCE, the necropolis was abandoned because the inhabitants of Novilara moved from the hinterland to the Adriatic coast (about 7 km away). There, they established the Picene outpost of Pisarum (today Pesaro), as attested by two Picene settlements with rectangular layouts from the late 6th and early 5th centuries BCE.
One notable stele from Novilara, dating to the 7th–6th century BCE, features a naval scene with a sailing ship, rowers in action, and a naval battle between two smaller vessels. The prows and sterns of all the ships are adorned with serpent-shaped elements, a celebrated example of Picene art.- Museo Archeologico Oliveriano, Pesaro, Italy
According to legend, the name of the ancient Picene city derives from the Roman general Marcus Furius Camillus (c. 446–365 BCE), who, after defeating the Gauls, weighed the gold (aurum) that the barbarians had plundered from Rome. The city became a Roman colony in 184 BCE, and 14 years later, it was the birthplace of the famous poet and playwright Lucius Accius (c. 170–85 BCE).
Lucius Accius: Life and Works
Lucius Accius was born into a family of freedmen and spent most of his life in Rome until his death. Despite his small stature, he was proud and ambitious. Although of servile origin, he gained fame and success in his long life, living in comfort and honor, and his reputation grew even further among later generations.
Accius was a prolific and imaginative poet who associated with aristocratic circles but was opposed by the Scipionic Circle, which included the tragic poet Marcus Pacuvius (220–130 BCE), the nephew of the poet Quintus Ennius.
In 140 BCE, Pacuvius, at the age of eighty, wrote a tragedy that competed with the works of the rising Accius.
Around 135 BCE, Pacuvius, by then ill, retired to Tarentum (today Taranto), where he was visited by Accius before the latter embarked on a journey to Asia. During this visit, according to Aulus Gellius, the young author read his Atreus to the elderly playwright. After, Accius visited Pergamum to deepen his knowledge of Greek culture. Upon his return to Rome, he became a leading member of the Collegium Poetarum (Guild of Poets), gaining prominence not only as a dramatist, like Plautus, but also as a grammarian.
About an intimate talk of the poets Pacuvius and Accius in the town of Tarentum (from Gellius, Attic Nights, book XIII,2.)
Those who have had leisure and inclination to inquire into the life and times of learned men and hand them down to memory, have related the following anecdote of the tragic poets Marcus Pacuvius and Lucius Accius: “Pacuvius” they say, “when already enfeebled by advanced age and constant bodily illness, had withdrawn from Rome to Tarentum. Then Accius, who was a much younger man, coming to Tarentum on his way to Asia, visited Pacuvius, and being hospitably received and detained by him for several days, at his request read him his tragedy entitled Atreus.” Then they say that Pacuvius remarked that what he had written seemed sonorous and full of dignity, but that nevertheless it appeared to him somewhat harsh and rugged. “What you say is true,” replied Accius, “and I do not greatly regret it; for it gives me hope that what I write hereafter will be better. For they say it is with the mind as it is with fruits; those which are at first harsh and bitter, later become mild and sweet; but those which at once grow mellow and soft, and are juicy in the beginning, presently become, not ripe, but decayed. Accordingly, it has seemed to me that something should be left in the products of the intellect for time and age to mellow.”
This famous anecdote recounts Accius's pride in defending his work and subtly attacking his rival. However, this tale closely resembles a story from Suetonius's Life of Terence, where the young playwright Terence read his Andria to the elderly Cecilius Statius, casting doubt on its authenticity.
Accius's boldness is illustrated by an anecdote in which he requested the erection of a large statue of himself at the Collegium Poetarum, despite his small stature. This behavior drew criticism, notably from Gaius Lucilius, the renowned satirical poet and a member of the Scipionic Circle.
Scene from Book XXIV of the Iliad: Hector's corpse brought back to Troy (detail). Roman artwork (ca. 180–200 CE), relief from a sarcophagus, marble. From Borghese Collection Louvre Museum, Paris
Immo enim vero corpus Priamo reddidi, Hectora abstuli.
No no! It is a corpse that I have rendered To Priam; Hector I have taken from him.
Accius's Literary Legacy
Forty-five titles of tragedies modeled on Greek works survive (including Agamemnonidae, Armorum Iudicium, Atreus, Clytemnestra, and Phoenissae), along with two praetextae (Brutus, celebrating the founding of the Republic and his patron D. Junius Brutus, depicting the expulsion of Tarquin the Proud, and Decius, on the sacrifice of Decius Mure at the Battle of Sentinum in 295 BCE), and about 700 lines of fragments. All the major legendary cycles are represented. His grandiloquent language, rich in scholarly compounds and alliterative devices, reworks Greek models. Together with Pacuvius, Accius established the forms of Latin tragic theater that persisted until Seneca.
Accius also contributed to philology, grammar, and literature, as evidenced by surviving references to minor works: Didascalica (a blend of prose and verse on literary topics), Pragmatica (on theatrical technique), Annales (at least 27 books in hexameters on myths and festivals), and Sotadica (possibly erotic poems).
Accius adapted his Greek sources with great freedom, sometimes blending material from multiple poets, much like the comic playwrights. The longest surviving fragment, twelve lines, describes a shepherd marveling at the sight of the Argonauts' ship.
Though scant, Accius's remaining works reveal a lofty and resonant style, marked by rhetorical devices like alliteration, antithesis, and parallelism, used with notable effectiveness. His phrases often display extraordinary vigor, such as oderint dum metuant ("let them hate, so long as they fear"). Cicero called him gravis, ingeniosus, summus; Horace described him as altus; Ovid referred to his "spirited voice." Quintilian and other Roman writers unanimously praised his contributions to Roman tragedy, calling him a pinnacle of the genre.
Last update: November 15, 2024
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