Extract

Of freedman birth. In Rome he had friendly relations with D. *Iunius Brutus Callaicus (consul 138). Anecdotes suggest that Accius believed that literary talent demanded in its context more respect than nobility of birth (see the story about C. *Iulius Caesar Strabo Vopiscus at Val. Max. 3. 7. 11) and that he did not tolerate insults to himself (Rhet. Her. 1. 24). Contemporaries were amused by the outsize statue of himself he had placed in the temple of the Muses (Plin. HN 34. 19).Accius had plays produced from at least 140 bce onwards until the turn of the century. Over 40 titles of tragedies of Attic (see tragedy, greek) type are transmitted (Achilles, Aegisthus, Agamemnonidae, Alcestis, Alcimeo, Alphesiboea, Amphitruo, Andromeda, Antenoridae, Antigona, Armorum iudicium, Astyanax, Athamas, Atreus, Bacchae, Chrysippus, Clutemestra, Deiphobus, Diomedes, Epigoni, Epinausimache, Erigona, Eriphyla, Eurysaces, Hecuba, Hellenes, Medea, Melanippus, Meleager, Minos sive Minotaurus, Myrmidones, Neoptolemus, Nyctegresia, Oenomaus, Pelopidae, Persidae, Philocteta, Phinidae, Phoenissae, Prometheus, Stasiastae vel Tropaeum Liberi, Telephus, Tereus, Thebais, Troades), and they seem to cover the whole range of mythic cycles.