Background
The son of a freedman, Accius was born at Pisaurum in Umbria, in 170 British Columbia.
The son of a freedman, Accius was born at Pisaurum in Umbria, in 170 British Columbia.
The year of his death is unknown, but he must have lived to a great age, since Cicero (born 106 British Columbia, hence 64 years younger) speaks of having conversed with him on literary matters. Accius also attempted to introduce innovations in Latin orthography and grammar, most of which were attempts to change written Latin to more faithfully reproduce its actual pronunciation. Few of these caught on, although his preference against giving Greek names Latin endings had quite a few supporters, particularly Varro, who dedicated his De antiquitate litterarum to Accius.
A spelling convention of writing long vowels double (such as aa for long ā) is also associated with him, and is found in texts concurrent with his lifetime.
Accius was politically conservative, and generally noted for his dignity and reserve. He did however believe that one with literary gifts, such as himself, ought to be accorded more respect than someone who, through no effort of their own, was merely born to nobility.
He was, by some accounts, a self-important man, and some writers expressed a wry amusement at the larger-than-life statues of himself he had erected in the temple of the Muses. Atreus featured the line oderint dum metuant ("let them hate, so long as they fear"), later an infamous motto of Caligula.