Abstract

Nos sumus Romani, qui fuimus ante Rudini, “We who once were Rudians are now Romans”. One of the most known in the Annals of Quintus Ennius, this fragment explicitly refers to the citizenship granted to the poet, probably in the year 184 BC, one of the dates accepted as terminus post quem for the beginning of the composition of his epic poem. Even in other fragments, although less explicitly, Ennius shows this sense of belonging, as he calls himself a Roman, besides being the bard to Rome’s res gestae. By means of a combined study of these fragments, this text aims to analyze the image the poet creates of himself as a Roman citizen within the Annals and, therefore, how his persona is self-represented.