Ennius strikes me as an author who surpasses his meager remains, and who provides a great number of verses suitable for the classroom.

Sound off!

Consider this much-maligned yet equally famous exercise in alliteration:

O Tite tute Tati tibi tanta, tyranne, tulisti!

It’s a line people love to hate, primarily because of it’s abuse of alliteration, but this makes it fun for the classroom. Try having students memorize the line — but with the proper quantities. Now the line becomes a perfect vehicle both for fixing the rhythm of the hexameter and for recognizing the importance of syllable length.

Ō Tite tūte Tatī tibi tanta, tyranne, tulistī!

Once again, this time with metrical divisions:

Ō Tite | tūte Ta- | -tī tibi | tanta, ty- | -ranne, tu- | -listī!

There’s an impressive alternation of short and long syllables, which, if pronounced properly by the rules of Restored Classical Pronunciation, produces an even more impressive little Latin tongue twister.

EXEMPLA VIRTVTIS

I like to spend some time every year on a unit I call EXEMPLA VIRTVTIS, focusing on the legendary figures whom Romans would look up to as exemplars of the MOS MAIORVM. (I do include what I call ‘negative exempla‘ — the people who show Romans what not to do).

There’s no better place to begin than with this fragment of Ennius:

moribus antiquis res stat Romana virisque

The Roman state stands through ancient ways and ancient men.

Within such a context, fragments on various historical figures could well serve as biographical snapshots, and can be memorized and used as models for new compositions of a similar nature.

First, Ennius on M’. Curius Dentatus:

quem nemo ferro potuit superare nec auro.

And he was a man whom no one could conquer — with iron or with gold.

Compare Ennius on Q. Fabius Maximus:

unus homo nobis cunctando restituit rem.

One man restored the state to us by delaying (the fight).

You might produce one, too, and help students to write their own. I’ll write one now off the cuff as an example. How about the early Republican heroine, Cloelia:

Cloelia, quae dederit spem nobis atque puellas.

Cloelia, who has given us hope, and our daughters too.

Hey, what do you know? It scans.

Try it, and let me know how it works out.