Had he been a semi-Graecus, like Ennius and Pacuvius, or of humble origin, like Plautus, Terence or Accius, he would scarcely have ventured, at a time when the senatorial power was strongly in the ascendant, to revive the role which had proved disastrous to Naevius; nor would he have had the intimate knowledge of the political and social life of his day which fitted him to be its painter.
There were two existing historical works in Latin, by Naevius and Ennius, but they were in verse, not prose.
Hence he never attained to that perfect idiomatic purity of style, which was the special glory of the early writers of comedy, Naevius and Plautus.
The location was the site of a major defeat of the Marici by the legions of Marcus Claudius Marcellus, which was celebrated in a tragedy by the Latin poet Naevius.