"Here is he laid to whom for daring deed, nor friend nor foe could render worthy meed"
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Austerity is the point: the line sounds like a tomb inscription because it is doing the hard work of making death feel final and unarguable. Ennius stages the deceased as a figure so decisively brave that even the two groups most obligated to speak about him - friends out of love, enemies out of grudging respect - come up short. That stark pairing ("friend nor foe") is a rhetorical trap: it eliminates the usual loopholes (bias, rivalry, politeness) and leaves only one verdict. If both sides fail to pay "worthy meed", the failure belongs not to the man but to language itself.
The intent is not just praise; it's canon-making. Ennius, writing in the early Roman Republic as Rome was expanding through Italy and into the Mediterranean, helped craft a literary voice that could match Rome's political ambitions. This epitaphic register turns personal valor into public property, the kind of virtue a rising state wants to display as its brand. "Daring deed" is deliberately nonspecific, letting the dead stand for a whole ideal type: the Roman whose actions outrun any private accounting.
Subtextually, the line flatters the living as well. To admit no one can "render worthy meed" is to invite the reader to try anyway, to participate in the collective project of remembrance and reputation. It's an economy of honor where the currency is praise, and the poet quietly positions himself as the mint: if ordinary speakers can't pay the debt, poetry might.
The intent is not just praise; it's canon-making. Ennius, writing in the early Roman Republic as Rome was expanding through Italy and into the Mediterranean, helped craft a literary voice that could match Rome's political ambitions. This epitaphic register turns personal valor into public property, the kind of virtue a rising state wants to display as its brand. "Daring deed" is deliberately nonspecific, letting the dead stand for a whole ideal type: the Roman whose actions outrun any private accounting.
Subtextually, the line flatters the living as well. To admit no one can "render worthy meed" is to invite the reader to try anyway, to participate in the collective project of remembrance and reputation. It's an economy of honor where the currency is praise, and the poet quietly positions himself as the mint: if ordinary speakers can't pay the debt, poetry might.
Quote Details
| Topic | Legacy & Remembrance |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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