ABSTRACT
When Ennius and Plautus had written, it could no longer be said that Rome had no literature, though not unfounded charges of crudity and undeveloped technique might have been brought against it. It was no longer remarkable that a few men somehow contrived to write books or plays in Latin, and the time was already ripe for the question what manner of books had best be written, and in what style. Hence it is not at all remarkable that we find, after the efforts of the great pioneers, several writers to whom the elder men are to some extent models, to an almost greater degree subjects of criticism, and in either case starting-points for further progress.
