The Annals of Quintus Ennius and the Italic Tradition

5. Ritual, Kinship, and Myth in Book 1 of the Annals

C h a p t e r 5 Ritual, Kinship, and Myth in Book 1 of the Annals If the number of lines preserved by other sources for a particular book is any indication, then book 1 of the Annals was even more popular than book 6. One hundred and twelve of 623 extant lines are assigned to book 1 in Skutsch’s edition , including two fragments that exceed 18 consecutive lines. There are also a number of testimonia for parts of book 1 that attest to its significance for later readers: the division of the Romans into tribes by Romulus and several details of the narrative of the rape of Ilia and the subsequent exposure of her twins, for example, are credited to Ennius by several sources, such as Servius, Porphyrio, who wrote a commentary on Horace, and the Origo Gentis Romanae. Because the first book of the Annals was a definitive statement of the myth of the origin of the Roman nation, no Roman author who came after Ennius—even the fourth-century CE author of the Origo Gentis Romanae—was able to approach the beginnings of the city without engaging the Annals.1 The number of quotations and references to book 1 of the Annals not only suggests that this part of the epic was widely read; it also provides a clearer glimpse of its thematic structure than any other part of the poem. Book 1 presents early Roman history as a family history over three generations—Aeneas, his daughter Ilia, and her son Romulus—which would have resonated with various traditions about different aristocratic families and their contributions to the Roman state. The Aeneidae are not a typical gens nobile of the middle Republic, though, since they all become immortal. Nor are they distant descendants of gods like the Fabii, who claimed Hercules as their ancestor; rather they are the immediate offspring of Venus and Mars. In spite of their close genetic relationships with the gods (and the fact that they don’t die), the three generations of the Aeneidae are a family of mothers, fathers, sons, and a daughter, who interact with each other as an ordinary family under extraordinary circumstances. Although it is never easy to piece together a narrative from scattered fragments, Ilia appears to have less difficulty communicating with her grandmother Venus than with her father, for example, an indication that gender roles play an important 128 The Annals of Quintus Ennius and the Italic Tradition role in the first book of the Annals. Because gender, family, and mortality are a means of placing an individual in the larger social (and cosmic) structure, these three elements of the narrative are all subthemes of a larger concern with social hierarchies. The exploration of these hierarchies in book 1 cannot be studied in precise detail because of the fragmentary state of the text. The great majority of the fragments, however, provide glimpses of constant negotiation of social position. The augural contest of Romulus and Remus (discussed in chapter 3) is, among other things, a means of determining which twin will be subordinate to the other in the society of their future city. Although little can be said of the details, the rape of the Sabine women and the co-optation of the Sabines into the Roman state integrate various individuals into a new and all-encompassing social structure . Moreover, the incorporation of the Sabines into the Roman state resonates with Ennius’ own experience as a native Italian who took up residence in Rome and was granted citizenship. In sum, these negotiations between different characters of different social standing in the Annals would not have differed very much from the navigation of the network of unequal relationships familiar to its Roman audience. The mythic origin of Rome in the Annals is not, however, a monolithic expression of the power relationships or of the ideology behind the system; it is a series of narratives that are “good to think with” about Roman society. The narratives explore the weak points of Roman social structure and the space between the fixed points on the hierarchical continuum, an exploration that should not be surprising, given the limited social mobility at Rome. Ennius himself, as well as manumitted slaves, became citizens. Nor is the use of literature to think about the social hierarchy of the middle Republic confined to the Annals. The comedies of Plautus invert social positions, if only to restore and reaffirm them, as Kathleen McCarthy has demonstrated...