Accius, Historical Plays in Roman Dress

LCL 314: 552-553

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Accius

Fabulae Praetextae

Aeneadae sive Decius

This play dealt with the self-sacrifice of Decius Mus, after the example of his father, at the Battle of Sentinum against the Samnites and the Gauls in 295 b.c. (Livy, X, 27 ff.; Polyb., II, 19). R., 594 ff.

The third Samnite War, which broke out in 298, reached a crisis in 296 when the Samnite general Gellius Egnatius planned a triple assault of Samnites, Etruscans, and Gauls on Rome. No decisive struggle was fought in this year, but the Romans appointed Quintus Fabius Maximus Rullianus and Publius Decius Mus to be consuls. The Etruscans failed to support Gellius, and the Samnites and Gauls retreated over

Nonius, 483, 40: ‘Tumulti’ pro tumultus . . . Accius Aeneadis sive Decio—

Nihil neque pericli neque tumulti est, quod sciam.

2–3

Nonius, 22, 10: ‘Gliscit’ est congelascit et colligitur vel crescit vel ignescit . . . —

Fabius

Dice, summa ubi perduellum est? Quorsum aut quibus a partibus gliscunt?

²dice Ribb. dic Grotius vis Voss. summa Ribb. de summatibus perduellum coni. Linds. disumma tibi p. cdd. ubi Grotius ibi Bothe est ibi p. Voss. quorsum vel quosum Bothe quorum cdd. quibus a Voss. quibus se a cdd. se seclud. Gulielmus quibus ex coni. Ribb.

552

Historical Plays in Roman Dress

Sons of Aeneas or Decius

the Apennines, pursued by the Roman consuls. The two armies met near Sentinum in 295; Fabius on the right wing steadily drove back the Samnites, but on the left the warchariots of the Gauls scattered the Roman cavalry. Decius Mus, mindful of his father’s sacrifice, devoted himself and the hosts of the enemy to the powers below and was himself killed by the Gauls. But his soldiers recovered themselves, and, with the aid of reserves sent up by Fabius, the battle was saved. The Samnites and the Gauls were now routed by Rome’s Campanian cavalry, Gellius was slain, and victory remained with the Romans.

Shortly before daybreak a scout reports that all is still:

Nonius: ‘Tumulti’ for ‘tumultus’. . Accius in Sons of Aeneas, or Decius—

There’s no danger, nor no tumult that I know of.

2–3

Fabius questions a deserter of Clusium:^a

Nonius: ‘Gliscit’ (swells up, masses) means congeals and is massed together; or grows; or takes fire . . .—

Fabius

Where’s the main body of the foe? Inform me. To what point and from what parts mass their numbers?

^aLivy, X, 27, 4 (three deserters from Clusium).

553

Find related works

DOI: 10.4159/DLCL.accius-historical_plays_roman_dress.1936