Lucius Accius, a Roman tragic poet, the son of a freedman, was born at Pisaurum in Umbria, in 170 BC. The year of his death is unknown, but he must have lived to a great age, since Cicero (Brutus, 28) speaks of having conversed with him on literary matters.
He was a prolific writer and enjoyed a very high reputation (Horace, Epistles, ii. i, 56; Cicero, Pro Plancio, 24). The titles and considerable fragments (about 700 lines) of some fifty plays have been preserved. Most of these were free translations from the Greek, his favourite subjects being the legends of the Trojan war and the house of Pelops. The national history, however, furnished the theme of the Brutus and Decius--the expulsion of the Tarquins and the self-sacrifice of Publius Decius Mus the younger. The fragments are written in vigorous language and show a lively power of description.
Accius wrote other works of a literary character: Didascalicon and Pragmaticon libri, treatises in verse on the history of Greek and Roman poetry, and dramatic art in particular; Parerga and Praxidica (perhaps identical) on agriculture; and an Annales. He also introduced innovations in orthography and grammar.
A saying attributed to Accius was oderint dum metuant ("let them hate, as long as they fear"), later a famous motto of Caligula.
220-130 BC) was the greatest of the tragic poets of ancient Rome prior to Accius.
He was the nephew and pupil of Ennius, by whom Roman tragedy was first raised to a position of influence and dignity.
In the interval between the death of Ennius (169 BC) and the advent of Accius, the youngest and most productive of the tragic poets, Pacuvius alone maintained the continuity of the serious drama, and perpetuated the character first imparted to it by Ennius.
Lucius Accius is regarded as the creator of the true Roman Tragedy : the Praetexta, or national drama, the subjects of which are drawn from contemporary history.
Accius was the son of a freed man ; he was born in Rome probably about 165 B.C. The exact date of his death is unknown ; but he lived to a very advanced age.
Quintilian says of Accius, ' that he was remarkable, like Pacuvius, for the seriousness of his thought and the weight of his expressions.' He might have added that Accius excelled Pacuvius in the elegance and variety of his style.
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