Roman poetry. He wrote also plays,--tragedies and comedies, both
_palliatae_ and _praetextae_. For an account of him see Cruttwell, History
of Roman Literature; also, Sellar, Roman Poets of the Republic, Ch. 3. If
_Ludo_ be read, it may be either from the Latin _ludus_ (Naevius entitled a
comedy _Ludius_) or from Λυδος, Lydian. -- POETAE: Naevius seems to have
been in the habit of adding _poeta_ to his name. It appears in the
well-known epitaph said to have been written by himself, also in the lines
written against him by the family poet of the Metelli: '_malum dabunt
Metelli Naevio poetae_'. The name _poeta_ was new in Naevius' time and was
just displacing the old Latin name _vates_; see Munro on Lucr. 1, 102. --
PROVENIEBANT etc.: the same metre as above, divided thus by Lahmeyer: --

_provéni | ebant | orát | ores || noví | stultí adu | lescén / iuli_.

The whole line has the look of being translated from the Greek: προυβαινον
(εις το βημα) ‛ρητορες κανοι τινες, μειρακια γελοια. Lr. takes _provenire_
in the sense of 'to grow up', comparing Plin. Ep. 1, 13, 1 _magnum
proventum_ ('crop') _poetarum annus hic attulit_; Sall. Cat. 8, 3
_provenere ibi scriptorum magna ingenia_. -- VIDELICET: 'you see'.

21. AT: = αλλα γαρ; used, as in 32, 35, 47, 65, and 68, to introduce the
supposed objection of an opponent. -- CREDO: 'of course'. Cf. 47 where
_credo_ follows _at_ as here. -- EXERCEAS: the subject is the indefinite
'you' equivalent to 'one', τις: 'unless one were to practise it'. So 28
_nequeas_; 33 _requiras_. Cf. also Plin. Ep. 8, 14, 3 _difficile est tenere
quae acceperis, nisi exerceas_. For the mood see A. 309, _a_; G. 598, 597,
Rem. 3; H. 508, 5, 2). -- TARDIOR: 'unusually dull'; cf. Academ. 2, 97
_Epicurus quem isti tardum putant_. -- THEMISTOCLES: famed for his memory.
-- CIVIUM: 'fellow-countrymen'; _perceperat_: 'had grasped' or 'mastered'.
-- QUI ... SOLITUM: 'that he often addressed as Lysimachus some one who for