Still more important service was rendered by him in his long Saturnian poem on the first Punic war, in which he not only told the story of contemporary events but gave shape to the legend of the settlement of Aeneas in Latium, - the theme ultimately adopted for the great national epic of Rome.
The idea which inspired Ennius was ultimately realized in both the national epic of Virgil and the national history of Livy.
These books contain the great national epic of Judaism relating the deliverance of the people from bondage in Egypt, the overthrow of the pursuing Pharaoh and his army, the divinely guided wanderings through the wilderness and the final entry into the promised land.
A long story book, called the Djiung yi (Sgrungs gyi gsungs ?), and regarded as the national epic in Kham, has been partly seen by Desgodins and Baber.
