NÆVIUS (Cneius), a famous poet of Campania, was bred a soldier, but quitted the profession of arms, in order to apply himself to poetry, which he prosecuted with great diligence; and composed a history in verse, and a great number of comedies. But it is said, that
Nagus, that his first performance of this last kind so displea-
Nagara. sed Metellus, on account of the satyrical strokes it con-
tained, that he procured his being banished from the
city; on which he retired to Utica in Africa, where
he at length died, 202 B. C. We have only some
fragments left of his works.