Pācŭvius Marcus

, a native of Brundusium, son of the sister of the poet Ennius, who distinguished himself by his skill in painting, and by his poetical talents. He wrote satires and tragedies which were represented at Rome, and of some of which the names are preserved, as Peribœa, Hermione, A talant a, Ilione, Teucer, Antiope, . Orestes was considered as the best finished performance; the style, however, though rough and without either purity or elegance, deserved the commendation of Cicero and Quintilian, who perceived strong rays of genius and perfection frequently beaming through the clouds of the barbarity and ignorance of the times. The poet in his old age retired to Tarentum, where he died in his 90th year, about 131 years before Christ. Of all his compositions about 437 scattered lines are preserved in the collections of Latin poets. Cicero , On Oratory , bk. 2 ; Rhetoric a ad Herennium , bk. 2 , ch. 27 .— Horace , bk. 2 , ltr. 1 , li. 56 .— Quintilian , bk. 10 , ch. 10 .