Although in his own day Accius was a towering literary figure, his writings have survived in a condition so highly fragmentary that he is, for the modern scholar, almost irretrievable. He was born around 170 B.C. at Pirsaurum, the son of freedmen parents. His personal circumstances must have been rather like those of Horace, whose father was a freedman who had acquired wealth enough to provide his son with the best education that money could buy. Certainly Accius was superbly educated. In 140 B.C. his first tragedy was produced in Rome, an event that brought the young writer into competition with the preeminent tragedian of the time, Pacuvius. The two men remained on good terms, and an anecdote by Gellius describes Accius reading the first draft of his Atreus to the senior poet (Gell. 13. 2. 2). Around 135 B.C. Accius traveled to Pergamum in order to complete his education. Like...