"There is a surviving snatch of Ennius' epic poem on the history of Rome that refers explicitly to 'the Second Punic War' in which he had fought as a Roman ally; it was written even before the third had happened." - SPQR by Mary Beard. What is the significance of this?

by twobackburners

In Chapter 5, after noting that Romans typically define their history in terms of war, there is the excerpt from the title. What is the point being made? What is the significance?

In particular "it was written before the third had happened" seemed to imply to me that it was significant they called the war the "Second" before the third had even occurred. But this seems fairly logical after two wars; it would have been surprising to find references to the "First Punic War" in the records before the occurrence of the second.

Is there something I'm missing?

[deleted]

But this seems fairly logical after two wars; it would have been surprising to find references to the "First Punic War" in the records before the occurrence of the second.

Well, she would be making a point about "the Second Punic War" (secundum, the second one/the following one) vs. "The Other Punic War" (alterum, the second one of two).

Yet no such quote from Ennius' Annals seems to exist.

The closest I can find is in Servius ad Verg. Aen. 1,281:

consilia in melius referet] quia bello Punico secundo ut ait Ennius placata Iuno coepit favere Romanis.

she will change her plans for the better] because in the Second Punic War, as Ennius says, soothed Juno began to favor the Romans.

This is generally understood as:

consilia in melius referet] quia bello Punico secundo ut ait Ennius "placata Iuno coepit favere Romanis".

she will change her plans for the better] because in the Second Punic War, as Ennius says, "soothed Juno began to favor the Romans".

But maybe Beard reads it as:

consilia in melius referet] quia "bello Punico secundo", ut ait Ennius, "placata Iuno coepit favere Romanis".

she will change her plans for the better] because "in the Second Punic War", as Ennius says, "soothed Juno began to favor the Romans".

Now, Servius' quotation seems off - The Annales are written in hexameter verse and "placata Iuno coepit favere Romanis" isn't metrically well-formed (we'd have to read Iŭnō instead of Iūnō and Rŏmānīs for Rōmānīs), he's probably quoting from memory and mixed the word order up (in Servius' time the vowel quantities weren't observed in speech, so if he was inattentive, the faulty version might not have sounded wrong to him). But this appears generally fixable, the component parts are sound.
Whereas the notion that "bello Punico secundo" should be part of an epic verse seems rather mindboggling - even leaving stylistic issues aside, the only way you could ever fit "Pūnĭcō" into an hexameter is by eliding into a short syllable (which is bad) or switching it out for Pūnĭcĕō.

So if this is indeed the fragment Beard is referring to, then I think her reading of it is mistaken. Otherwise, I'm at a complete loss as to where she got her "Ennius" quotation from.