The laet- stem appears six times in fragments attributed to Ennius: four identified as part of the Annales, and two from Ennius‟ satires.97 Some instances of Vergil‟s
employment (and Catullus‟ and Lucretius‟) of the laet- stem are quite similar to these six uses in Ennius.98 For example, Ennius uses the laet- stem to refer to the exhilaration of battle:99
omnes mortales victores, cordibus vivis laetantes, vino curatos somnus repente in campo passim mollissimus perculit acris
96 196ff.
97 For these I have consulted Skutsch (1985), Jocelyn (1967), and Vahlen (1903). Skutsch
lists four instances of the laet- stem in the Ann.: laetificum gau (585, p.125); laetantes (367, p.102); agros laetos (468, p.113); and laeta prata (537, p.121). Vahlen includes two more: vites laetificae (Trag. 193, p.113); and laetus (Sat. 26, p.158). Jocelyn, on Ennius‟ tragedies, lists laeto in his line 283 (attributed to the Telephus), as a corruption preserved in the manuscripts, of leto, but he does not include any of the six instances found in Skutsch and Vahlen.
98 On Vergil‟s use of Ennius, see especially Elliott (2008), on Vergil‟s use both of the
Annales and Ennius‟ tragedies, with particular regard to verbal repetition in intertexts; see also Norden, whose 1927 commentary on Aen. 6 refers often to Vergil‟s use of Ennius. For further bibliography see e.g. Stabryła (1971), Richardson (1942), and Kennedy‟s (145-154) and Farrell‟s (222-238) chapters in Martindale, ed., Cambridge Companion to Virgil (1997).
These three lines (attributed to Annales 12.367) are quoted by Priscian, whose interest lay in the form of acris in the third line.100 Skutsch (1985, 533) explains this passage thus: “An army (Roman?) after victory: the sudden change from triumphant elation to the sleep of exhaustion.” The physical exhilaration after a victory in battle is identical to a type of use in the Aeneid (although there, more associated with laetitia than a form of laetari) that I discuss in Chapter II.3.
Skutsch explains vino curatos as “refreshed with wine.”101 The closest verbal parallel to a passage in the Aeneid, though the sleep and battle are reversed, involves the instance of laeti at 9.157.102 The locating of the feeling with cordibus vivis will be more closely paralleled by the Catullan locating of the feeling expressed by the laet- stem in the body.103
100 On the security of this source content and transmission of this passage, see Skutsch
(1985, 532-535). These three lines come, together, from Priscian, 2.153: acer et alacer et saluber et celeber quamvis acris et alacris plerumque faciant et salubris et celebris feminina, in utraque tamen terminatione communis etiam generis inveniuntur prolata... Ennius in XVI: aestatem autumnus sequitur, post acer hiems it [Enn. Ann. 16.420, Skutsch]. idem in XII: omnes... acris [this passage]. Priscian quotes the passage again (2.230) as well. Priscian, Skutsch writes, “had no more information to go by than we have” (534), but he takes acris as nominative singular, although the accusative plural makes the most sense, and evidently all save Priscian take it this way.
101 “This phrase excludes any idea of overindulgence: corpora curate is a normal
command to troops on the eve of battle or before a strenuous march” (534). For similar uses, Skutsch cites Livy (25.38.22, 34.13.10, 35.30.9, etc.). Skutsch also cites Aen. 3.511 corpora curamus, fessos sopor occupat artus, but there is no laetus there.
102 nunc adeo, melior quoniam pars acta diei, / quod superest, laeti bene gestis corpora
rebus / procurate, viri, et pugnam sperate parari (Aen. 9.156-158).
103 Skutsch would disagree; he writes, “The ablative is not to be taken too closely with
The next example, also quoted by Priscian,104 is in the line et detondit agros laetos atque oppida cepit. The common phrase agros laetos refers to the health or
luxuriance of plant matter. Skutsch posits the subject to be Regulus, in the account of the First Punic War in Book 7, but since Priscian quotes only this line here, we have little context. Skutsch also allows that the subject of detondit may have been Hannibal, Fabius, Scipio in Africa, or even Philip in Greece.105 At any rate, the line likely appears in the context of a war and associates the capturing of cities with the destruction of life and the livelihood of the cities‟ inhabitants.106 The juxtaposition of destruction with the fertility and abundance communicated by laetus resembles that in the simile of Aen. 2.304-310, in which Aeneas, watching the Greeks lay waste to Troy, is compared to a pastor, watching as the storm from heaven destroys his sata laeta and sweeps away his animals.107
Another instance in Ennius is similar (Skutsch v.537, which he refers to Ann. 16):
104 Skutsch includes this verse, which he numbers 468, in his sedis incertae fragmenta but
considers it most likely to belong to Book 7 of the Annales (616). The citation of the line in which laetos occurs appears at Priscian 2.482 (detondeo detondi. vetustissimi tamen etiam detotondi protulerunt. Ennius in annalibus et detondit agros laetos atque oppida cepit. at Varro in Magno Talento detotonderat forcipibus vitiarium feris) (627). The manuscripts of Priscian disagree as to the form detondit in the Ennian quotation; nearly all give detotondit, but, as Skutsch writes, “at Varro makes it certain that Ennius is quoted for the classical form” (627).
105 Skutsch (1985, 627).
106 We do not have context enough to determine whether there is any sort of transitive
force, i.e. whether the fields are laetus because they make their owners or tenders laetus.
107 in segetem veluti cum flamma furentibus Austris
incidit, aut rapidus montano flumine torrens 305 sternit agros, sternit sata laeta boumque labores
praecipitisque trahit silvas; stupet inscius alto accipiens sonitum saxi de vertice pastor.
tum vero manifesta fides, Danaumque patescunt insidiae. (Aen. 2.304-310)
fert sese campi per caerula laetaque prata. This line is a description of a horse, tearing through a field; it is quoted by Macrobius in a comparison of similar passages in the Iliad, Ennius, and Vergil.108 The phrase laetaque prata, in its position at line-end, resembles many examples in Lucretius (see below).
The fourth instance of the laet- stem in the Annals109 is the most problematic, due to its lack of context and close association with the gaudium-family vocabulary. The phrase laetificum gau (Skutsch v.585), two independent and presumably complete words, are quoted in Ausonius‟ Technopaegnion, a set of poems in which each line ends with a monosyllabic word.110 Therefore gau is most likely the whole of the word Ausonius intended to write. Skutsch posits that this extreme shortening (of gaudium?) was perhaps made up by Ausonius to mock the form volup (perhaps a shortening of voluptas).111
On laetificum itself, verse 585, Skutsch writes: “the adjective does not necessarily belong to Ennius even if the noun does. It is active in origin and, certainly to begin with,
108 See Skutsch (1985, 683-684) for further discussion.
109 That the phrase comes from the Annals at all is assumed because the other phrases in
this passage quoted by Ausonius do belong to the Annals (Skutsch 1985, 728).
110 Ausonius plays with a tradition, or assumption, that certain forms in Homer were
poetic abbreviations of other words (Skutsch 1985, 727 cites the Homeric δῶ as
misunderstood for a shortening of δῶμα and likewise κρῖ as an abbreviation of κριθή). The Hellenistic authors continued this sort of play.
111 Skutsch (1985, 727) refers to his line 276 of verses from the Annals. The suggestion
was made by Timpanaro (1947, 196, n.1): “Può darsi che con gau Ausonio abbia inteso deridere la forma enniana volup (A. 242), che a lui doveva sembrare una bizzarra apocope di voluptas.” The passage of Ausonius in which this phrase appears is the following (Technop. 13.3: Ennius ut memorat repleat te laetificum gau. liquida mens hominum concretum felle coquat pus… unde Rudinus ait divum domus, altisonum cael, et cuius de more quod adstruit endo suam do, aut de fronde loquens cur dixit populea fruns)
active in sense (so Enn. scen. 152 vites laetificae) and is not used as an equivalent of laetus before Stat. Theb. 8.261; 12.521, though laetificans may have that meaning in Plaut. Pers. 760.”
The next two instances are attributed to Ennius‟ satires. A form of laetificus appears in a passage attributed by Vahlen to Ennius‟ Eumenides:
caelum nitescere, arbores frondescere, vites laetificae pampinis pubescere, rami bacarum ubertate incurviscere,
segetes largiri fruges, florere omnia, 195 fontes scatere, herbis prata convestirier.112
This use neatly combines the laetus that conveys human emotion with that that conveys fertility and health of plants;113 the vines themselves are healthy, growing, putting out shoots (193), in the context of other plant matter flourishing (ubertate 194, fruges 195, florere 195, etc.), but the vine (i.e., the grape vine) is associated with Bacchus, as we see elsewhere, and therefore also a certain sort of “joy” for people.114 This passage is quoted by Cicero for the novelty of some invented words.115
112 Vahlen (1909, 113) Trag. lines 192-196; Vahlen assigns this as fragment VIII from the
Eumenides. Ribbeck includes this as among the ex incertis incertorum fabulis, line 134, fragment 72; the line does not appear in Jocelyn.
113 Cf. Duval (2004, 134ff.).
114 On the connection between Bacchus or wine and laetus in the Aeneid, see my
discussion of Aen. 1.734.
115 This passage comes from Cic. Tusc. 1.28: hic autem, ubi habitamus, non intermittit
suo tempore caelum, etc. Likewise cf. De Or. 3.38: novantur autem verba, quae ab eo qui dicit ipso gignuntur ac fiunt vel coniugendis verbis... vel saepe sine coniunctione verba novantur, ut: ille senius, ut: di genitales, ut: bacarum ubertate incurvescere. See Vahlen
There is one instance in what survives of Ennius in which laetus appears to convey a straightforward “joy”:
quippe sine cura laetus lautus cum advenis insertis malis, expedito bracchio,
alacer celsus, lupino expectans impetu, mox cum alterius abligurias bona,
quid censes domino esse animi? pro divum fidem! 30 ille tristis cibum dum servat, tu ridens voras.116
In these lines, absent any more context, the second person verbs, along with other
relatively straightforward emotional indicators (sine cura, alacer, tristis, ridens) indicate that a positive personal emotion is meant here, but we cannot be more specific. These lines are transmitted in Donatus, on Terence, Phorm. 2.2.25. Vahlen also includes a paraphrase from Lactantius, enticingly related to the Aeneid, but its relationship to Ennius‟ own work is suspect.117
Therefore, of the six surviving instances of the laet- stem in Ennius, two instances refer directly to plants (agros laetos and laeta prata); in another, a crop is laetificus (vites laetificae);118 and in two, laetus refers to people (one in the context of battle, and one without enough context to say). The sixth use appears in the phrase laetificum gau, without any further context.119
116 These are Vahlen‟s lines 26-31, Saturarum 6 (Vahlen 1909, 158).
117 Lact. Inst. 1.22: simile quiddam in Sicilia fecit Aeneas, cum conditae urbi Acestae
hospitis nomen inposuit, ut eam postmodum laetus ac libens Acestes diligeret augeret ornaret. These are quoted in prose, and are numbered by Vahlen as lines 60-63. (173)
118 On the signification of laetus as laetificus, “à la fois cause de joie et effet de joie,” see
It is mere chance that these are the six instances that survive. However, it is worth noting that, of the six, three refer to agricultural contexts; we must remember that laetus has a deep ambivalence between agricultural lushness and fertility, and human emotion— that the primary meaning is not always, or even often, something like “joyful.” If we agree with modern scholars (like Ernout and Meillet, de Vaan, etc.; see above) that the agricultural context is the earlier of the two, and the reference to human emotion is the derived sense, we might ask when the word developed that second meaning—or, rather, through what process, and over what time period, the second use gained popularity. I do not think there is enough evidence in surviving early Latin for a study of this
development to be made; if this transition happened, it happened before the literature that survives to us. In the early authors in particular, an author‟s content seems to dictate which of the two broad categories an author uses: for example, Cato uses the agricultural meaning exclusively, and Plautus, the emotional one.120