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.
This latter expression in turn reminds of a verse (Teucer, fr. 291) of the Roman tragic poet Marcus Pacuvius (ca. 220–130 BC) quoted by Cicero (106 BC–43 BC): Patria est ubicumque est bene (45 BC, Tusculanae Disputationes,Liber Quintus (V), 108).
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.
Due to ambiguities in some manuscripts of Livius, Pacuvius Ninnius is sometimes confused with Pacuvius Calavius, the chief magistrate of Capua, and for this reason, Sthenius is described as Sthenius Calavius in some sources.