SOURCE: “The ‘Campanian’ Origin of C. Naevius and Its Literary Attestation” in Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome, Vol. XIX, Yale University Press, 1949, pp. 15-34.

In the following essay, Rowell examines the earliest source material, particularly the efforts of Varro, for compiling biographical information concerning Naevius, with emphasis on the question of whether or not Naevius came from the city of Capua.

The only indication which we have of the origin and nationality of the poet Naevius appears in a chapter of the Attic Nights in which Aulus Gellius records the epitaphs of Naevius, Plautus, and Pacuvius.¹ In introducing the epitaph of Naevius, Gellius makes the following comment: Epigramma Naevii plenum superbiae Campanae quod testimonium esse iustum potuisset nisi ab ipso dictum esset. Here the word Campanae is our indication. But the information which it contains remains, unfortunately, rather uncertain for so important a fact until we...