M. Ati'lius
one of the early Roman poets, is classed among the comic poets of Rome by Vulcatius Sedigitus, who assigns him the fifth place among them in order of merit. (
Ap. Gell. 15.24.)
But as Atilius translated into Latin the Electra of Sophocles (Cic.
de Fin. 1.2; comp.
Suet. Jul. 84), it would appear that he wrote tragedies as well as comedies.
The latter, however, may have been both superior to, and more numerous than, the former; and this would be a sufficient reason why Sedigitus classed him among the comic poets, without having recourse to the improbable conjecture of Weichert (
Poet. Latin. Reliquiae, p. 139), that he had turned the Electra of Sophocles into a comedy. Among his other plays we have the titles of the following :
Μισόγονος (Cic.
Tusc. Disp. 4.11),
Bocolia (Varr.
L. L. 6.89, ed. Müller),
Ἄγροικος, and
Commorientes. (Varr. apud
Gell. 3.3.)
According to another reading the last three are attributed to a poet Aquillius.
With the exception of a line quoted by Cicero (
Cic. Att. 14.20), and a few words preserved in two passages of Varro (
L. L. 7.90, 106), nothing of Atilius has come down to us. Cicero (
ad Att. l.c.) calls him
poeta durissimus, and Licinius describes him as
ferreus scriptor. (Cic.
de Fin. l.c.)