“Utinam ne in nemore Pelio”. Un verso di Ennio nelle opere di Cicerone

Abstract

Rapidly become a literary topos, Ennius’s line utinam ne in nemore Pelio refers to certain events one wished had not unfolded, given the far-reaching consequences they had. In his works, Cicero quotes Ennius’s line repeatedly. Depending on the context, this citation has different functions: it is either used as a means of defence against accusations, or as argumentum longius repetitum in the schools of rhetoric, or as a parodic way to confute Chrysippus’s causal theory.

Keywords

• ennius
• cicero
• quotation