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Lucius Accius (; 170 – c. 86 BC), or Lucius Attius, was a Roman Republic tragic poet and literary scholar. Accius was born in 170 BC at Pisaurum, a town founded in the Ager Gallicus in 184 BC.Livy, Ab Urbe Condita, xxxix, 44 He was the son of a freedman and a freedwoman, probably from Rome.Suetonius, De Poetis, 8
The year of his death is unknown, but he must have lived to a great age, since CiceroCicero, Brutus, 72–73 (born 106 BC, hence 64 years younger) writes of having conversed with him on literary matters.
Most of his poetical works were imitations or free translations of the Greek, especially Aeschylus. The earliest of these was most likely the Atreus, which was performed in 140, but is now lost.Cicero, Brutus 229 He also wrote on some Roman subjects, one of which, an examination of the tyranny of L. Tarquinius Superbus and his expulsion by Lucius Junius Brutus, was titled Brutus, and was probably written in honor of his patron D. Brutus.Cicero De Legibus. ii.21, . 11 His favorite subjects were the legends of the Trojan War and the house of Pelops. While only fragments remain, the most important of which were preserved by Cicero, they seem sufficient to justify the terms of admiration in which Accius is spoken of by the ancient writers. He is particularly praised for the strength and vigor of his language, and the sublimity of his thoughts.Cicero 24, 56, &c.; Horace Epodes ii.1.56; Quintilian x.1. § 97; Aulus Gellius xiii. 2 Although the grandiloquence of his literary style was on occasion mocked by some of his peers,Porph. Hor. Serm. 1.10.53 he continued to be cited by other writers long after his death.
Accius wrote other works of a literary character: Libri Didascalicon, a treatise in verse on the history of Greek and Roman poetry, and dramatic art in particular; also Libri Pragmaticon, Parerga, and Praxidica, of which no fragments remain; and a hexameter Annales containing the history of Rome, like that of Ennius.
A spelling convention of writing long vowels double (such as aa for long ā) is also associated with him and is found in texts concurrent with his lifetime.
A fragment of Accius' play Atreus features the line ("let them hate, so long as they fear").
The cited also includes these authorities:
As a grammarian
Accius also attempted to introduce innovations in Latin orthography and grammar, most of which were attempts to change written Latin to more faithfully reproduce its actual pronunciation. Few of these caught on, although his preference against giving Greek names Latin endings had quite a few supporters, particularly Varro, who dedicated his De antiquitate litterarum to Accius.Varro, De lingua Latina 10.70
Politics and temperament
Accius was politically conservative, and generally noted for his dignity and reserve. He did, however, believe that one with literary gifts, such as himself, ought to be accorded more respect than someone who, through no effort of their own, was merely born into the nobility. He was, by some accounts, a self-important man, Rhetorica ad Herennium 1.24 and some writers expressed a wry amusement at the larger-than-life statues of himself that he had erected in the temple of the .Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 34.19
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